


i feel the teasing of the storm clouds

by PinkCanary



Series: all we want (and all we ever could have hoped to be) [1]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Camping, F/F, F/M, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-04
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-04-07 15:41:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 28,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4268916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkCanary/pseuds/PinkCanary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Let’s face it, it’s not like she had a lot of options.</p><p>Or at least, that’s what Clarke told herself.  She had taken an extra semester of classes in the spring, but the dorms closed for the summer and there was no way that she was going to go <i>home</i>.  And so, as she pulled into the parking lot for Camp Ark, she consoled herself with the thought that the whole thing could be a hell of a lot worse.</p><p> </p><p>Clarke, Bellamy, and Raven learn how to work together, manage a group of unruly teenagers, and maybe even deal with that <i>something</i> that seems to be growing between them.  AKA Bravenlarke summer camp counsellor AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> SUPER MEGA HUGE THANKS to [random-french-girl](http://random-french-girl.tumblr.com/), for getting so excited about this AU and coming up with the best camp counsellor headcannons for all of our characters. I'm not sure this would have actually happened without her! :)
> 
> I made an 8tracks playlist of some of the music that I was listening to when writing this. It's all alt/indie/folk with a vaguely optimistic woodsy feel. :) Listen [here](http://8tracks.com/sarah-mct/all-we-want-and-all-we-ever-could-have-hoped-to-be).
> 
> Title comes from Toyko Summer by The Mounties.
> 
>  
> 
> _We lay together under stars as if we didn't exist_  
>  _I feel the teasing of the storm clouds on both of our lips_  
>  _Some of this feels so dangerous and it's hard to resist_  
>  _Some of this is just so much safer to let go than to miss_

Let’s face it, it’s not like she had a lot of options.

Or at least, that’s what Clarke told herself. She had taken an extra semester of classes in the spring, but the dorms closed for the summer and there was no way that she was going to go _home_. And so, as she pulled into the parking lot for Camp Ark, she consoled herself with the thought that the whole thing could be a hell of a lot worse.

For one, she had Wells in the passenger seat of her car, his overstuffed duffle bag nestled next to hers in the trunk. When she had told him that she was applying to work as a camp counsellor for the summer, he had immediately started filling out the applications as well. “At least we’ll get to hang out all summer, and ‘counsellor at a camp for vulnerable teens’ sounds a lot better than ‘filed paperwork at my dad’s office’ on a resume,” he had pointed out cheerfully. 

And it couldn’t really be _that_ bad, right? Clarke liked kids — ok, they were pre-teens and teenagers — she liked them as much as _anyone_ liked them. And the idea of spending a summer outdoors — swimming and canoeing and campfires — sounded like just what she needed. Clarke had fond memories of going to camp when she was a preteen, and being a counsellor couldn’t be _that much_ different, she told herself.

Oh yeah, the whole thing could definitely be a hell of a lot worse.

* * *

It only took three minutes for Clarke to have her first panic attack.

When Wells found her, she was sitting on the floor next to the wall in the dining hall (which was currently functioning as a check-in point for counsellors and later, campers) trying to regain her sense of zen from earlier in the day. Clarke stared down at the piece of paper in front of her until the words blurred, and tried to count her breaths. _One, two, three…._ Fuck it, the panic was there to stay.

Wells grabbed the piece of paper out of her lap. “I don’t get it. What’s wrong?” 

**Clarke Griffin - Senior Girls Counsellor A  
Raven Reyes - Senior Girls Counsellor B**

Clarke pointed to the words on the paper. “It’s her. She’s my roommate. We have to work together all summer.”

“It’s _who_?”

Clarke sighed. “Finn’s girlfriend.”

When the camp director had sent out a welcome email a few weeks earlier, Clarke had been excited to receive a few Facebook friend requests from other counsellors within minutes. That is, until she had noticed one particular profile picture. The picture showed a gorgeous brunette with her arm slung around a guy. Clarke had felt her stomach drop, and she knew what she was going to find even as she clicked on the profile.

**Raven Reyes. In a relationship with Finn Collins.**

Fuck.

Clarke had met Finn during the spring semester in college. She had thought that the fantasy and sci-fi literature class would be the perfect way to spend the spring — sitting in the park, drinking coffee, reading Tolkien and Heinlein, and knocking out a humanities credit at the same time. Finn had just been an added bonus. He was cute, in that pretty-boy way, charming, and very clearly into her. They had hung out in class, which quickly turned into coffee, and then a few dates, and then a few nights in his apartment spent _not sleeping_. She had just been starting to consider that she might be seriously into him, when she received that friend request from Raven Reyes. 

Clarke had been humiliated at the realization, her trust shattered. Let’s face it, it was just a few weeks, and Clarke was really more angry about the fact that he had used her to cheat on his girlfriend, than on the actual loss of Finn himself. He was a nice guy — or, so she had thought — and it had been nice to feel like someone really liked her and wanted her. 

Raven, on the other hand? Raven had every right to be _furious_. Though she had yet to get the whole story through their awkward Facebook messages, she knew that Raven and Finn had been together for years — childhood sweethearts, from what Clarke understood — and Raven had only been away for a few weeks, while taking a spring semester transfer course at another university. Clarke could only imagine how she would feel if she was in the same situation. And though she had _intellectually_ known that Raven was going to be a counsellor at the same small camp, she had kind of thought that maybe they could avoid each other for the entire summer. Which was probably her first mistake.

The camp was divided up into juniors (the twelve and thirteen year olds) and seniors (the fourteen and fifteen year olds), and each division had twenty girls and twenty boys. The living arrangements were simple. Clarke and Raven’s senior girls were divided into two cabins - ten girls in each cabin - with the small counsellors’ quarters in the middle, opening to each cabin with a connecting door. 

Clarke surveyed her new home for the next six weeks. A narrow bed on each side of the room, two matching dressers on the end, and a doorway to a small bathroom. Just four feet would separate her from the girl whose boyfriend she had had sex with… repeatedly. And when they weren’t sleeping in the cabin, they were going to have to be a united front, _a team_ , keeping order amongst twenty adolescents. 

Perfect. Couldn’t be better. 

Clarke was just packing her clothing (mostly tank tops, quick drying shorts, several swim suits, a small collection of hats to try to keep the sun off of her blindingly white skin…) away in the dresser, when the door opened, and Raven walked into the room. 

The first thing that Clarke noticed was that Raven’s Facebook profile picture really didn’t do her justice because… wow. She was wearing the standard camp counsellor uniform - sneakers, a faded t-shirt, and denim cut-offs that showed off her long, toned legs. Her hair was pulled back in a neat ponytail, her face scrubbed clean, and Clarke had no idea that she had a _type_ until that very moment but… oh yeah, she was definitely Clarke’s type. _Well, this certainly won’t make the summer any less awkward._

The second thing that Clarke noticed was that Raven actually looked… nervous? Definitely anxious, for sure. Her eyes flicked up to Clarke’s, and Clarke could immediately see that Raven was at least as self-conscious about this meeting as she was feeling right now. 

They stared at each other awkwardly for a painfully long moment. Clarke could hear an actual fucking cricket chirping, somewhere outside of the cabin. 

It was Raven that finally broke the tense silence. “Okay, I’m just going to come out and say it. I know that you didn’t know about me, and that you broke up with him as soon as you found out. And I want to thank you for that. Because knowing that you two weren’t… some grand fucking love story or something, it made it easier for me to end it, you know? I mean, if he would do that to me for a girl that he barely even knew, than it wasn’t worth holding on to. He was the most family that I had for a really long time, but I couldn’t keep thinking of him as my everything, when I was barely a passing thought in his life.” Raven paused for a moment and Clarke saw _something_ sweep through her eyes for just a moment, but she blinked and it was suddenly gone. “I just want you to know that… I don’t blame you for what happened. Finn fucked both of us over.”

Clarke had no idea what to say, and Raven seemed to…. deflate, as they stared at each other. 

“Wait. You didn’t love him, right?”

“Oh, god no. I barely knew him.” Clarke knew that the distaste was clear on her face.

“Okay, good… I guess. I just wanted to get that all out there, because we need to be able to work together and live together.” She paused, and she still looked distinctly uncomfortable with the entire conversation. Clarke was going to guess that talking about her feelings was something that Raven Reyes only did under extreme duress. “So… truce?”

“Um… yeah. Sure. That sounds good.” Clarke knew that her surprise showed on her face. She had expected anger, resentment, even jealousy, but this? She wasn’t quite sure how to work with this. Not yet, anyway.

“Ok. Good. Now let’s get on to scaring twenty impressionable teenagers into compliance with summer camp rules.” Raven winked and her expression was clearly relieved… probably more at coming to the end of the conversation, than at the actual outcome. She set her duffle bag on the bed and started to unpack.

Over the next hour, she and Raven had made small talk as they had prepared their cabin for the imminent arrival of their campers. Raven had a wide infectious smile, a peculiar brand of self-congratulating humour that should have been irritating, but instead was actually endearing, and a deep love for truly bad puns. Clarke was shocked that she found herself instantly _liking_ the other woman. By the time that they made their way to the dining hall to meet their campers, they were already trading quips like they had known each other for years. 

Her zen was back. Raven Reyes was unexpectedly awesome. This summer was going to be awesome, Clarke thought optimistically. And then she met Bellamy Blake.

Camp director Marcus Kane had just finished a rousing speech full of platitudes about teamwork and “for the greater good of the camp”, when they were approached by two guys. One had dark skin and a shy smile; he hung back slightly behind the other counsellor. The other counsellor - with his curly black hair and scattering of freckles - could have very easily been one of the most attractive guys that Clarke had ever seen… if it hadn’t have been for the dark scowl on his face. 

“Are you Clarke and Raven?” The surlier of the two asked. He looked to be several years older than the rest of the counsellors. 

Raven pointed to herself. “Raven. And Clarke.” She said, gesturing to Clarke next to her. “And you are?”

“Bellamy Blake and Nathan Miller. But apparently he just goes by Miller.” Miller nodded along in agreement. “We’re the senior boys counsellors.”

Clarke could remember seeing something in her paperwork about the senior boys and girls teaming up for a lot of their activities but, to be honest, she had been pretty distracted by the whole Raven _situation_ as she read through it. 

“Nice to meet you.” Clarke said, sticking out her hand towards Bellamy.

Bellamy just glared. “Do you really think that you belong here, _Clarke_?” Clarke didn’t even try to hide her confusion at his words. “Suburban Connecticut, fancy private school, mom’s a surgeon. I’m sure there is some expensive horse camp in New England or something that you could be spending your summer working at. Most of the kids here are being raised by single parents with three jobs, or are in foster care, and if you think that they’re going to appreciate some rich girl telling them what to do, you are sorely mistaken.”

Clarke knew that her mouth had fallen open at his words, but she snapped it closed as she regained her bearings. For a moment, all she could see was red; she was practically vibrating with anger. “What exactly do you think that you know about me? Because whatever you _think_ that you know, you are wrong. And how do you even know my entire life history, anyway?” Her voice was calm, but anyone who knew Clarke Griffin at all knew that this was when she was at her most dangerous. Clarke caught a glimpse of Raven out of the corner of her eye, and her expression was equal parts irritated and amused.

Bellamy looked sheepish for just a moment, before his face was steely once more. “My sister—“ He was interrupted by a tall brunette throwing her arm around his shoulders. 

“What about your gorgeous, witty, perfect sister?” She grinned at Clarke, clearly oblivious to the tension between the two counsellors. “Hey, I’m—“

“Octavia.” Clarke supplied, before she could stop herself. With a name like Octavia and a face that rivalled her brother’s on the attractiveness scale… Clarke was unlikely to forget. “You friended me on Facebook a few weeks ago.”

“Oh! Hey! And this idiot is my big brother, Bellamy.”

Clarke gritted her teeth. “We were just in the process of getting acquainted.”

Octavia’s eyes narrowed, as she suddenly became aware of the chill in the air that clearly had nothing to do with the humid early-July heat. “What did you do?” Octavia’s smile slipped off of her face, and one elbow came out to meet Bellamy’s ribs. He grimaced and, if anything, his face became even more surly.

“Just letting the new girl know how this place works.” 

Clarke could feel herself bristling again, and she started to open her mouth to tell him just what she thought about his “introduction” when she was interrupted by Raven’s hand on her arm. “Look, I think we’ve got some campers!” Her voice was faux-cheery as she pointed towards the check in table. “Nice meeting you, Octavia and Miller. Bellamy… I’m sure we’ll be continuing this fun conversation at some point in the future.” She shot Bellamy a clear _what the fuck, man?_ look over her shoulder, as she dragged Clarke away from the other counsellors.

“What the fuck is his problem?” Raven whispered through the corner of her mouth, as they approached the teenager girl waiting for them.

“Not even a clue.”

* * *

The first week of camp passed quickly with a haze of icebreaker games, camp orientations, and inevitable “where the heck is the archery course” panic attacks. 

Clarke and Raven were kept in almost constant motion, from wake-up until lights out. Their girls were fourteen and fifteen years old, really just a few years younger than Clarke and Raven themselves and, for the most part, totally cool. They had already dealt with their share of “I don’t want to do that” and “I’m not going over there if _she_ is going over there” but they had managed to get through the first week without any serious drama. Clarke was already starting to consider that maybe she was just _awesome_ at this.

Clarke had also dedicated a good portion of that first week to avoiding Bellamy Blake. This proved to be rather difficult, as each senior girls cabin teamed up with one of the senior boys cabins for a lot of their activities, so it basically meant that Clarke had a 50/50 chance of encountering Bellamy at any point during her day. Not to mention meals, and campfires. Still, she had stuck to necessary organizational small talk and, though Bellamy had glared at her at basically any given opportunity, he hadn’t tried to engage her in any more conversations about her personal life.

Thankfully.

Clarke flopped down on to the log next to Wells. Each day ended with a campfire, but Sunday nights were somewhat special. Big bags of marshmallows were brought out, along with graham crackers and chocolate, and the kids descended on them as if they hadn’t seen food in a month. Which was… perfectly understandable, actually. S’mores were the best. 

“I feel like I haven’t seen you at all this week.”

“I _have_ barely seen you at all this week. You got lucky with the older kids.” Wells grinned conspiratorially. “The younger kids still like us and want to spend time with us.”

Clarke laughed. “My kids are awesome, but so filled with drama. I can’t believe that I was one of them just a few years ago.”

“Seriously, Clarke?” Wells raised his eyebrows at her. “You got paired with the girlfriend of the guy that you were dating, and I heard that you almost got into a fistfight with another counsellor on the first day. You’re pretty much a walking disaster. Drama sees you and gives you an impressed nod. You have more drama than the rest of your cabin put together.”

“I get it!” Clarke sighed. “Raven is actually really super cool. I mean, it’s obvious why Finn liked us both, because we’re both pretty damn great.” She looked up at Wells for a moment, grinning tightly, before turning her attention back to picking at the bark on the log. “Bellamy, though? He’s an asshole. Plain and simple. You know that he Facebook stalked me so that he could lay into me about not being _a proper fit_ for the camp’s demographics?”

“He seems to be really good with the kids, though. I mean, I think that they really like him.”

As much as Clarke hated to admit it, Wells was right. Bellamy had a way of interacting with the kids that just put them at ease; a combination of concern, cheerleading, and good-natured teasing… that instant big brother that you couldn’t help but like. Without even meaning to, her eyes sought him out in the crowd of kids around the campfire, and she wasn’t surprised to see that he had gathered a small group of campers around him as he lectured on the perfect marshmallow roasting technique. 

“Well, it’s good to know that it’s just _me_ that he hates. I was beginning to think that this summer was going to be too easy… in that hour or so before I met him.”

Even as they discussed other things — Wells was convinced that his co-counsellor Murphy was going to kill him in his sleep — Clarke couldn’t stop her thoughts from drifting back to the curly-haired asshole with the freckles. And so, when Wells had to get up to mediate a chocolate-hoarding dispute, she wasn’t surprised when she found herself openly watching him interact with the campers. 

He and several of the kids had stepped away from the firelight, and Bellamy was pointing up at the sky. As she watched, his gestures got bigger and more animated, as he continued to point out constellations and stars. By the end of his story, he had attracted quite a group of campers, who were all listening in rapt attention, and Clarke couldn’t help smiling at their enthusiasm. 

“He’s good at that.” Clarke jumped, startled by the voice that had suddenly appeared beside her. She turned to face Octavia.

“At what?”

“Telling stories. When I was little, I used to tell him that I was scared so that he would lay down in bed with me and tell me a story.” She paused, as if trying to decide how much to reveal. “After mom died, I would ask him to tell me a story, and he would always curl up in my bed with me and talk about whatever I wanted until I fell asleep, even though I was really too old for it by then.”

“How old were you when your mom died?” Clarke couldn’t help asking.

“Thirteen. Bell was nineteen, and it was just the two of us after that.”

Clarke didn’t know what to say. “Oh. Wow.”

“Yeah. He did everything that he could, and it wasn’t so bad, I guess.” She grinned suddenly. “He was working all the time, and so he made sure that I got to come here during the summers, so that I wouldn’t be home alone all day.”

“How many summers were you here?”

“Three. And then I had to wait until I turned eighteen so that I could come back as a counsellor.” She laughed. “I managed to drag Bell along with me, too! He put up a bit of a fight, but I guess after hearing me talk about the place for so many years, he had to come see it for himself. And I’m going off to college in a couple months, so I can really talk him into anything at this point.” She winked. 

Clarke couldn’t help grinning back at Octavia. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and it was clear that she loved her brother. Clarke’s eyes flickered to Bellamy, who was still pointing at the sky, helping one of the younger boys find a constellation. 

Octavia was watching Clarke with an amused expression. “He’s over-protective and he tends to react badly if he thinks that something that he cares about is being threatened.” She winked at Clarke again, but this time her expression was all mischief. “Just give him a chance, and you’ll probably find that out for yourself.”

Clarke was still left trying to decipher her words as Octavia walked away to join her group of campers.

* * *

Though every day was different, there were certain routines - almost rituals - that were vitally important to keeping the camp running smoothly. Each morning, Clarke was the one to hit the “off” button instead of “snooze”, heading to the bathroom to get ready for the day, before practically dragging Raven out of her bed along with the girls. At breakfast, Raven was the one that accompanied the girls to the table, while Clarke went straight for the coffee. Two cream and one sugar for herself, and black (and in the biggest mug that she could find) for Raven. All day, Raven was a strange mix of cheerleader and instigator - always ready with a sarcastic quip when needed, and a fierce hug when it was needed even more. Clarke, for her part, talked down arguments and handed out ice packs and bandages with impressive efficiency. It was a strange dynamic that they had, but it seemed to work.

At night, Clarke and Raven would lie in the dark in their room, waiting for their cabins to finally grow silent. 

It was early in their second week of camp, and Clarke was already feeling particularly committed to this _ritual_. In fact, she was pretty sure that it was her favourite part of the day. She stretched out on the narrow bed, using her toes to nudge the blankets farther towards the end of the bunk. It was just too fucking hot for blankets, even with the windows all wide open to let in the cooling night air. She picked at the fraying hem on her navy blue tank top, and stared up at the ceiling, waiting for the whispers and muffled giggling to die down on the other side of the wall. Raven was curled up on her own bed, dressed in a tank top and tiny sleep shorts, close enough to touch with her fingertips if Clarke happened to reach across the gap. On this particular night, Raven was pillowing her head on her hand as she read a battered copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The kids liked to tease her mercilessly about her choice in reading material, but she had also gotten several requests to borrow it when she was done, so they were both considering it a net win. 

Finally, they could hear nothing but silence from the cabins on either side of them. Raven rolled on to her side to face Clarke.

“Hey, Clarke?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m reading a book about anti-gravity.”

Clarke turned her head so that she could see the copy of Harry Potter resting on Raven’s pillow next to her head. “Hmmm?”

“Yeah…” She paused for a moment. “It’s impossible to put down.”

Clarke groaned quietly, burying her face into her pillow. When she spoke, her voice was muffed but she liked to believe that the exasperation still shone through clearly. “Seriously, Raven?”

“Aren’t you so glad that you have five more weeks of my jokes? I guarantee that they never get old.” She was grinning, trying to hold back her own giggles. 

They were both quiet for a long moment, before Clarke finally spoke. “I think we ended last night with my turn, so you’re up.”

Raven hummed softly, considering. “How about the first time you ever got drunk?”

Clarke chuckled, and she lowered her voice to a soft whisper, aware of the possibility of prying ears on the other side of the wall. “I was seventeen. Wells and I stole a bottle of champagne during some fancy party that his dad was throwing, and we snuck out into the yard to drink it. Champagne makes my head feel floaty… and I get really giggly. I still do, but it must have been really bad that first time. My dad found us, and he was trying to act really stern and angry, but I could tell that he was trying not to laugh. He never told my mom, either.” Clarke smiled into the darkness for a second, before her face suddenly sobered. “You?”

“I was twelve. My mom was drinking, and she passed out on the sofa. That wasn’t uncommon. It happened all the time. But this time, her bottle of vodka was sitting right there on the coffee table and I decided that I wanted to try it, too. I don’t know how much I drank, but I threw up a few times, and mom was so angry with me when she woke up. She…” Raven trailed off. “Let’s just leave it at ‘she was really angry’.” 

She went silent, and Clarke could just barely see her face in the darkness, but she was struck by just how sad and lovely Raven looked, all at once. Clarke wanted to ask more questions, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was, “Have you ever laughed so hard that you peed your pants?”

Raven burst into laughter. “Is that another question, or the start of a confession?”

“Both… I guess. You go first.” Clarke was giggling now, flushing a deep red, and the tension that had filled the room a minute earlier was gone. 

The two continued trading questions for another hour. They were sticking to lighter questions, muffling their laughter into their pillows, when Clarke finally realized that Raven had asked her a question and she had completely missed it. Her eyes were closed, as she lay on her side on the lumpy camp mattress, but she could hear the amusement in Raven’s voice. “Goodnight, Clarke.”

“‘Night, Raven.” Clarke murmured, snuggling deeper into her pillow, and then she was asleep.

* * *

Clarke had left Miller in charge of the beach volleyball game for a few minutes, while she made a desperately-needed trip to the bathroom, when she stumbled upon the boy hiding behind the senior boys’ cabin. After a moment, she was able to place a name to the face — he was one of Bellamy’s kids — Myles, and his face was red and splotchy with tears. 

“Hey.” She said quietly, like approaching a wild animal.

Myles immediately straightened up and wiped his face, trying to hide the evidence of his crying. 

“Shit… I mean, I wasn’t hiding or anything. I just needed…”

“It’s cool.” Clarke tried to project a tone of calm _no pressure_ as she spoke. “Do you want to talk about it?”

He cringed just the slightest bit. “Not really. One of the other guys was just saying some shit about my dad and I guess I just…” 

Clarke could feel herself tense up, and she tried to force down the feeling of panic. She knew — and Bellamy had made it all too clear on their first day — that many of these kids didn’t have the best family situations, and were probably dealing with a hell of a lot of shit in their everyday lives. She didn’t feel at all qualified to play _therapist_ , but the least that she could do was listen and let the appropriate people know if it was beyond her comfort level.

“Is everything okay with your dad?”

Myles shrugged. “He left last year and I haven’t seen him since. He wasn’t the best guy — he wasn’t _terrible_ , or anything — and my mom and I are pretty sure that we’re better off without him, but sometimes…”

“You miss him.” Clarke supplied and Myles nodded, looking almost ashamed of himself. 

Clarke sighed; she started tracing patterns in the dirt with the toe of her sneaker, without even realizing that she was doing it. “My dad died last year. I know it’s not the same thing, because…” she trailed off, and hoped that her point was obvious without needing to be said. “But I know what it’s like to miss your dad.”

Myles looked up, meeting Clarke’s eyes, and she could see the sadness on his face. “He was really into all this outdoor stuff. Camping, boating, fishing. He used to take me, back when I was younger. When things were still good. My mom thought that coming here would be good for me, and I am having fun. I do like to do all of this shit, even without him. But it also makes me miss the way that we used to hang out.”

 _Shit._ Now that was a feeling that was way too close for comfort. Clarke found herself confessing, before she could stop herself. “I used to draw. And paint, I guess. I don’t even think that I was really _that good_ , but my dad used to get so excited about it. Bringing home art supplies and taking me to art galleries whenever we travelled anywhere. Since he died, I just… don’t. Do any of it, anymore.”

Myles was scuffing his shoe in the dirt, kicking a small rock free; it rolled a few inches, before coming to rest in the grass. When he spoke again, his voice was hesitant and careful. “Do you think that you’ll ever draw again?”

That was really the question. “I don’t know. Maybe one day it’ll just feel like it’s time.”

Myles’ tears had stopped, and his face no longer screamed _I was crying behind a cabin_. Clarke wasn’t sure how much she had actually helped, but at least he seemed to have calmed down. “Do you want to hang out and read or something, or do you want to go back to your group?”

“I’ll go back to the group. We’re on the archery course and Bellamy is probably already freaking out.” He gave her a hesitant smile.

Bellamy met them half way as she walked Myles back to the archery course, but she just mouthed, “later” to him when he gave her a curious raised eyebrow. She knew that she would actually have to talk to him later; he needed to know if something was going on with one of his campers. Sure enough, he cornered her right after dinner.

He was looking concerned, his face tight and pinched, and so Clarke took the offensive, before he could start accusing her of meddling with “his kids”. “Myles is fine. He’s going through some family stuff, and I talked to him, but I’m sure he would appreciate talking to someone else who has been through this sort of thing before. Just keep an eye on him, okay?”

To her surprise, Bellamy just nodded thoughtfully. She expected him to grill her about what they had talked about. Expected him to pick apart her response, tell her that she didn’t know what she was doing and should have come got him in the first place. It was what she had been thinking, herself, since she had found Myles that afternoon. 

“Thanks for talking to him. I’m sure it meant a lot that you were looking out for him.” He was giving her a small hesitant smile. “I’ll check in with him later, okay?”

Clarke nodded, and she was sure that her confusion was fully evident on her face. She just couldn’t keep up with him; launching into her when she hadn’t even _done anything_ , and then giving her his approval without question. She was still feeling slightly off-balance when she met up with Raven in their cabin a few minutes later. 

“Everything okay? I saw you talking to Blake out there.”

She forced a smile on to her face, pushing all thoughts of the confusing counsellor out of her mind. “Yeah. I think everything is fine.”

* * *

Over the next couple days, Clarke and Bellamy settled into a kind of _truce_. They weren’t friendly, per se, but the iciness between them seemed to have thawed. Clarke no longer dreaded being paired with his cabin for activities, and she was certain that this cautious ceasefire would have continued for the indefinite future, if it hadn’t have been for Octavia’s penchant for mischief. 

When she stepped out into the clearing where they held their campfires, the last thing that she expected to see was Raven sitting close to Bellamy, heads bent together as they talked.

She didn’t know whether it was residual awkwardness from their first meeting, or a sense of loyalty to Clarke, but Raven had seemed to steer clear of Bellamy. However, there she was, sitting next to him and Miller on the campfire log, very intent on whatever conversation that there were having. Raven and Bellamy’s faces were close together as they whispered, and she couldn’t help thinking that they just looked _lovely_ together; their dark hair and complexions complementing each other, Raven’s high cheekbones the perfect match for Bellamy’s strong jawline. Just gorgeous. 

Clarke could feel her stomach twist with something that felt suspiciously like jealousy, and she knew that her face was flushing pink. The worst part was that she wasn’t exactly sure what part of the scene was triggering those thoughts, and so she forced it down. Definitely not willing to examine _that_ right now. 

Raven was waving her over, and so Clarke approached the log, sitting down on Raven’s other side. She didn’t waste any time getting to the point.

“We have a problem.”

Of course. It was the only explanation. Clarke wasn’t _happy_ to hear that there was likely some crisis or drama amongst their kids, but at least it made sense.

“What’s going on?”

Bellamy’s forehead was furrowed in concern, and Clarke couldn’t help noticing that his freckles were particularly adorable in the dim light of the campfire. _Where the fuck did that come from?_

She was quickly returned to reality when he held one foot up for her inspection. “Smell my shoe.”

“There is absolutely no way that I am smelling your shoe.” It was only her upbringing (she could practically hear her mother’s scolding voice in her head) that stopped her from tacking on _what the fuck is wrong with you?_ She was pretty sure that her tone conveyed it, anyway.

Raven was practically cackling next to her. “Octavia put toothpaste in Bellamy and Miller’s shoes. You know what this means.”

“That she has way more energy than any one person should rightly have after spending 16 hours a day with a bunch of pre-teens?”

“She’s started a prank war!” Raven’s voice was practically gleeful.

“So? What does this have to do with us? Siblings do dumb things all the time. Why do we have to get involved?”

“You’re already involved. She’s going to set up the juniors against the seniors, and this is going to escalate.” Bellamy’s face was grim, but the corners of his mouth were turned up slightly.

“We need to come up with a really epic prank at this point, or else we’re just going to be _reacting_ all summer.” Raven pointed out, as if any of this made any sense at all.

“But if we help Bellamy and Miller with a prank, then Octavia is going to come back at us next.”

“You’re already her next target. So tell me, are you going to act or _react_ , Clarke?” Bellamy goaded, a ghost of a grin on his lips. 

Clarke sighed. There was no way that this was going to end well.

* * *

Sure enough, two days later Clarke found herself lifting off the lid on the back of the toilet tank in the counsellor bathroom that Maya and Octavia shared. She started measuring scoops out of the bag, dumping the coarse white powder into the water. 

“Where the hell did you even get a giant bag of citric acid?” 

“That part was easy. One of the crafts that the kids will be doing this summer is homemade soap and bath bombs. Citric acid is what makes bath bombs fizz.”

Bellamy nodded. After a moment, though, his face clouded, and Clarke couldn’t help thinking that that was a lot more grave than someone should look over pilfered craft supplies. 

“So…. uh… I should tell you something.”

“Yeah?” That didn’t sound good _at all_.

“Yeah. I…uh. I heard you when you were talking to Myles the other day. I was trying to find him and I heard you talking, and I knew I shouldn’t have eavesdropped but he’s one of my kids and I was concerned. I didn’t mean to hear all of the personal stuff, though…. like, about your dad. I just thought you should know that I heard it.”

Clarke didn’t know what to say. She paused, her scoop hovering above the bag of citric acid. When she really thought about it, she was most surprised to realize that she actually didn’t _care_ if Bellamy knew. She had been _not talking_ about her dad for so long that it had actually felt good to just tell someone about him, even if it was a fourteen year old boy. 

“It’s really fine, Bellamy. I know that you were just worried about Myles, and I don’t really talk about my dad much, but it’s not like it’s a big _secret_.” She poured one more scoop of the powder into the tank. “Ok, that should be enough. What’s next.”

Bellamy looked surprised but relieved as he held up the bottle of dishwashing liquid. “Raven says that we have to put a couple tablespoons of the soap into the toilet tank with the citric acid.” He opened the bottle and gave a few squirts. “Close enough.”

“Okay, and then the baking soda in the toilet bowl.” Clarke shook the box generously over the bowl. “Do we go for what seems right, or extreme overkill?”

Bellamy grinned. “Overkill. No question.”

“Agreed.” Clarke gave the box another shake just for good measure.

“And that’s it? We just turned a toilet into a soapy foam-propelling device?”

“That’s what Raven says.”

“Excellent.” Bellamy paused, a thoughtful look on his face, and Clarke could tell that he was working up to something. He really didn’t have a subtle mode at all. 

“Just spit it out. I can tell you want to say something.”

Bellamy grinned self-consciously, running his hand through his already-tousled hair. “Have you really not drawn at all since your dad died? You just stopped?”

“I just stopped. It’s one of those things where… I’m either inspired to do it, or I’m not. I can’t really force it.” In a nutshell, it was true. She had just felt so far removed from the act of _creating_ , like she couldn’t muster up the energy anymore.

He nodded. “For a long time after my mom died, it was like I just couldn’t feel anything. I mean, there were so many things that I had to do for Octavia, but it was like I was just going through the motions.” His eyes darkened. “I’m afraid to think of what I might have done if I hadn’t have had Octavia to take care of.”

Clarke had no idea what to to say to that, and it seemed like Bellamy didn’t particularly expect a response. “Anyway, thanks again for talking with Myles. I know that I was kind of an ass—“ Clarke couldn’t help the snort that escaped her and his face broke out into a small smile. “Ok, I was a total asshole. But I wanted you to know that you did really good with him. He needed someone to listen, and you did that without telling him how he should feel about everything. That’s really all that a lot of these kids want. Someone to listen to them.”

Clarke felt overwhelmed, like there was something in her chest that was desperate to break out, and she focused on cleaning up the evidence of their prank to distract herself from the piercing sincerity in Bellamy’s eyes. Bellamy was apparently not only the kind of guy who was fiercely protective, vicious and defensive when he thought that he was being threatened, but also the kind of guy who had a deep need to make things _right_. 

She thought that maybe she understood some of what Octavia had said to her a few days earlier, and she found herself fascinated. Excited to uncover another piece of the real Bellamy Blake, like he was a jigsaw puzzle that only needed to be brought together.

* * *

She got another _piece_ the next day.

Octavia stomped up to his cabin’s table during breakfast, a massive grin across her entire face. “That was _epic_ , big brother! Maya screamed so loudly that I thought something was trying to kill her!” She leaned in close to Bellamy, and Clarke could barely hear her words when she spoke, low and dangerous. “You know that this is fucking war, right?” Her smile did not dim at all, as she turned and stalked back to her own cabin’s table, where her girls were whispering excitedly and exchanging high-fives.

That evening, as Clarke and Raven lounged on their log, exhausted, watching their own kids roasting marshmallows, Bellamy suddenly flopped down between them. He offered Clarke the marshmallow off of his stick, before bringing his other arm up to casually throw it over Raven’s shoulder.

“Looks like we’re in this together from now on.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “See what I mean!” He laughed. “I’m a disaster.” 
> 
> Raven was still smirking, but she reached her arm over to pat Bellamy’s shoulder, and her arm brushed Clarke’s stomach in a way that made her _shiver_ , and there is no way that the other two don’t notice it, with the way that they were tanged together. 
> 
> “It’s okay, Bell. Apparently me and Clarke _like_ disasters.”
> 
> The summer continues at Camp Ark, and _something_ grows between Clarke, Bellamy, and Raven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! Thanks so much to everyone who has read this thing, and everyone who left kudos and comments! :)

“Favorite junk food?”

Clarke smiled up into the darkness of the cabin. “I think that everyone has noticed my complete lack of chill on ice cream night.”

Raven giggled. “Lack of _chill_ on _ice cream_ night? Is that a—?”

“No. It’s not. Puns are your thing.” Clarke turned her head to stick her tongue out at Raven. “What about you?”

“I’m warning you right now, never open a bag of chips in my presence. I don’t even know how it happens, but suddenly they’re all all gone and then I hate myself for the entire rest of the day.”

“Noted.”

Clarke still wasn’t sure how it had happened, but she and Raven had somehow become good friends over the first couple weeks at Camp Ark. She had really gone into it expecting the worst, but the simple truth was that Raven was just really easy to like. She was silly, and sarcastic even without trying, but when Raven believed that you could do something, you absolutely believed that you _could_ do it. They played up their differences in leadership style for the amusement of their campers (Clarke often exaggeratedly scolded Raven as she suggested over-the-top ways to play dirty and eviscerate the opposing team during games, while Raven came up with an increasingly ridiculous series of nicknames for Clarke “You’d Better Put a Bandaid on That” Griffin) but in reality, they just _meshed_. They knew when the other was reaching the end of their rope and needed a break, or a pep-talk, and they knew when they needed to back each other up, and when they could banter. They just _worked_.

And on a personal level… Clarke found herself drawn to all of the layers of Raven Reyes. Her first layer was loud and unabashed in her enthusiasm, smugly self confident, and quick to laughter, with an easy infectious smile. But if she let you see the _real_ Raven, it was obvious that this was her protective layer; the projected image of a happy and confident young woman, that stopped most people from looking any further and seeing just how vulnerable she really was. 

They weren’t there yet, but Clarke couldn’t help hoping that she might be trusted with the Raven beneath the armour _some day_ and the feeling was unexpected and scary. And not something that Clarke was going to examine too hard, just yet. 

“What did you want to be when you grew up?”

Raven chuckled softly. “That implies that we have _grown up_ in any way.”

“You know what I mean. When you were a kid.”

She paused thoughtfully. “I know it’s cliche, but I really did want to be an astronaut.” Clarke could hear the uncertainty in her tone, could almost see her blushing in the dark room. “Still kind of do, to be honest.”

“Oh yeah?” Clarke propped her head up on her hand so that she could see Raven better. “How does one even go about becoming an astronaut?”

“I’m taking engineering in college right now, and I’ve thought about applying to the graduate programs in aerospace engineering at CalTech and M.I.T. But the programs are really competitive and I’d have to have basically perfect grades, and ace the GRE exams…”

Clarke frowned into the darkness at Raven’s uncertain tone. “So? Get perfect grades and ace your GRE exams.”

“You make is sound so easy. I’ll just win the lottery and find myself a magical unicorn, too.” She could hear the smirk in Raven’s voice - the humour that she used to cover up when she was really unsure about something. 

“You’ll study your ass off and you’ll get it done, if that’s what you really want to do. I believe in you, Reyes.”

Raven was silent for a long moment, and when she finally spoke, her familiar self-confident smug tone was back. “Of course you do. I’m awesome.” Clarke couldn’t help the snort of laughter that escaped her. “Ok, I’m done talking about me. What did you want to do when you grew up?”

Clarke sighed. Her life had always seemed so simple — all planned out for her. Follow the road and hit the milestones and achieve your goals. Done. But now…? Clarke had no idea. “I always wanted to be a doctor like my mother. Always. I started pre-med last fall, and then my dad died in October… and it just made me question everything that I had always assumed about my life. What if I don’t actually want to be a doctor, but I’m just doing it because it’s what my mom wants?” She paused for a moment, thinking. “Like, I think I’d probably be good at it, but is it what I really _want_ to do? Life is too short to do things just because it’s what other people want.”

“What would you do if you didn’t go into medicine?”

She shrugged, her breath leaving her lungs all at once. “I… have no idea. That’s the problem.”

Raven laughed gently. “You’re only nineteen, Clarke. You don’t have to have it all figured out, yet.”

“Tell that to my mother.”

Clarke was surprised (to say the least - surprised was probably the understatement of the century) when Raven suddenly reached across the gap between their two beds, and grabbed Clarke’s hand, from where it had been lying on the pillow next to her head. Raven squeezed her hand gently, and her voice was uncharacteristically gruff. “You’ll sort it out, Griffin. We both will.” And then, she was retreating back to her own bed as if nothing had ever happened. “Now stop bringing down the mood and tell me about the most embarrassing thing that happened to you in junior high.” 

Clarke blinked a few times, trying to regain her composure. She could still feel the heat from Raven’s hand on her own, and she was embarrassed to admit, even just to herself, that she already missed the warmth.

* * *

It didn’t take long for each counsellor to collect their own little group of like-minded kids, according to their own personality. 

Octavia’s girls were wild and fearless; they invented their own war cry for use during games and sports, and Octavia herself spent hours in front of the campfire, braiding each girl’s hair into tiny intricate braids that kept their hair untangled and out of their face. Wells became well-known as the counsellor to go to if you were overwhelmed and in need of some quiet time. He was often found sitting under a tree with a camper, each absorbed in their own books. Murphy, despite his perpetual scowl and constant snark, always had a small herd of angry-looking teenagers following him around, much to the amusement of the other counsellors. Raven’s particular talent for blowing shit up was legendary among the campers, and she was always inundated by requests to recreate favourite YouTube videos involving fire and destruction. 

Octavia’s cabin had started the trend when they begged her to recreate her famed toilet foam bomb, to the delight of the entire camp (and the inevitable dismay of every single parent, come next April Fools Day, Clarke was sure). A few days later, Jasper and Monty had cornered Raven with a bottle of Coke and a tube of Mentos… prompting Kane to perform cabin searches and confiscate every single bottle of soda in the camp, in an attempt to stop the soda volcano craze that spread through camp. 

Clarke had woken up at dawn one morning to find Raven wide awake, and busily duct taping a piece of plastic piping to a compressed air canister. 

“Do I even want to know?”

“Marshmallow gun.”

“Why?”

“In case I need it.”

“Where did you get the air canister?”

“Do you really want to be implicated in this, if it comes down to that?”

Clarke had just rolled over in her bed, desperate to claim the last couple hours of sleep before her alarm went off. But she was almost sure she heard a mutter of “No-Fun Griffin” before she drifted back to sleep.

A few days later, Clarke and Bellamy were sitting on the dock in their swimsuits, legs dangling lazily in the lake as they loosely “supervised” the swimming campers (there were actual paid lifeguards on the beach - they were really just there to watch the clock and make sure that everyone got out of the water and changed in time for ultimate frisbee), and Clarke was pointedly trying not to stare too hard at Bellamy’s toned abdomen and muscular arms.

_Because that would just make this whole thing awkward, right?_

Clarke could admit that Bellamy was actually a pretty cool guy, now that they were no longer at each other’s throats. He continued to make obnoxious motivational speeches to all of the kids during games, and he and Clarke still bickered constantly, over issues like Batman vs The Avengers (SERIOUSLY? Only freaking Bellamy Blake would choose Batman over Captain America), and who would win in a fight between Stephen Colbert and John Oliver (definitely Colbert - he seemed _scrappy_ ). But he was actually pretty fun to spend time with, and Clarke found herself actually enjoying his company. 

Without warning, the radio sitting on the dock between them crackled to life.

**Hey? Clarke? Bellamy?** It was Miller.

Bellamy picked up the radio, and started speaking into it. “It’s Bellamy. Everything okay?”

**Yeah, everything is fine. But I thought that you should know that some of the kids talked Raven into attaching a motorboat motor on to a canoe and I think it’s going to go badly.**

Clarke’s eyes flickered over to Bellamy and she had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. Bellamy raised his eyebrows at her.

“Just make sure that none of the kids get into it. We’re all dead if one of the kids gets hurt, but Raven blowing herself up won’t surprise Kane at all. He might even be relieved.”

**I’ll keep you posted.**

Clarke and Bellamy were both silent for a moment, before bursting out into peals of laughter. When she finally caught her breath again, Clarke had a stitch her in side and tears in her eyes, and she couldn’t help noticing the way that Bellamy was looking at her, eyes soft and affectionate. 

“That girl, right?” Clarke finally managed to say.

Bellamy nodded. “She’s really something.” 

“She definitely is.”

(In the end, Raven showed up for ultimate frisbee with soaking wet hair and clothes, and what looked like some wicked road rash on her left thigh. Even Raven could admit that it probably wasn’t the _best_ idea that she’d ever had.)

* * *

Later that night, after all of their campers were finally asleep and Clarke and Raven had just started discussing their feelings on Parks and Rec versus Community, Clarke heard a voice calling their names from outside the cabin. Raven stood up curiously, and popped her head out the window. 

“What do you idiots want?”

She could clearly hear Bellamy’s voice, now. “We need to talk about something. Can you guys come out for a few minutes?”

Clarke and Raven exchanged curious looks, but Clarke began looking for her shoes. Whatever it was, it must have been important to come find them after lights out. 

They crept out of the cabin, closing the door quietly behind them, and ventured into the dark clearing that separated the boys and girls cabins. “What’s up?” Raven asked, once they reached Bellamy and Miller.

“It’s about one of the kids in Octavia’s cabin. Charlotte. We need everybody to keep an eye on her, okay? Octavia and Maya have noticed that she hasn’t really settled in with any of the other kids, and seems to mostly keep to herself. We know that she’s in foster care, but we don’t really know what her home life is like, and Octavia says that she’s been having nightmares. Octavia and I will talk to Kane tomorrow. See if he has any suggestions on what we should be doing to make her feel more at home.”

Clarke nodded. She knew from Kane’s speech at the beginning of camp that this program was good for a lot of pre-teens and teens in difficult situations. Kids like Octavia who craved a chance to get away from their day to day lire, and to just have fun with other kids like them. But, he warned, there would be other kids who had difficulty adjusting to the camp, and who would have trouble. 

Raven spoke up. “We’ll make sure to watch out for her. Make sure no one is bullying her, see if she connects to any of us other counsellors.” Clarke knew that Raven’s own life had not been easy, and that Finn had been the one who had reached out to _her_. She wondered, not for the first time, what life must be like for Raven now. 

Bellamy was nodding. “Okay. Well, that’s it.”

“Alright.” Raven flopped down onto the soft grass of the clearing. “What do you like on your pizza?”

“Why? Are you ordering in to the cabins, Raven?” Bellamy looked amused.

“This is what we do after the kids go to sleep. It’s like truth or dare, but without the dare part. We usually play until Clarke passes the fuck out and leaves me hanging.”

“I don’t do that!”

“You do that. Every single night. I don’t mind, it’s totally cute.”

Clarke couldn’t help the pleased smile that overtook her face, and she found herself settling down into the grass next to Raven. 

Miller was the next to sit down. “This is totally happening, isn’t it.” It wasn’t a question.

Bellamy finally settled down into the grass with a sigh. “I’m a purist. Just pepperoni.”

“Boring, Blake!”

“Don’t even get me started on Clarke. She keeps talking about this weird taco pizza with lettuce and sour cream…”

Clarke tuned out the bickering for a moment, laying back so that she could see the dark sky above them, dotted with tiny pinpricks of light. 

_Yeah, this really wasn’t bad at all._

* * *

“What’s the deal with Murphy?” Clarke had asked one night, while sitting next to Wells at the campfire. “I can’t believe anyone would have hired him to be around children. I can’t even believe that he would want to work here.” 

Wells had just shrugged enigmatically. “It took me a few weeks to figure him out. Just watch him. You’ll see.” 

And the more Clarke watched, the more it made sense. When a kid dug in their heels and refused to do something, Murphy simply sneered alongside them, somehow sarcastically sympathetic. And somehow it worked. Even the most jaded kids would come around for Murphy; he was their ally when the entire rest of the world was their enemy. 

Once she started watching the other counsellors, their individual dynamics became obvious.

Each counsellor had something that made them unique and identifiable to all of their campers. Something that drew in kids, and made them trail behind them like ducklings. Maya had a deep love for video games, and could name all 151 of the original Pokemon, much to the delight of the younger kids. Bellamy was a born storyteller, always willing to start talking about _anything_ when the campers got bored and restless. Even Wells was a hero amongst the quieter, shy kids — organizing board game tournaments for the kids who weren’t in the mood to run around, and never badgering anyone into participating when they didn’t want to. 

What did Clarke have? A quick answer to the question, “where is the first aid kit right now?” and a million silly nicknames about just how not-fun she was. 

She flopped down next to Wells at the campfire one night. “How do you guys do it?”

“Do what?”

“Make the kids like you.”

“The kids like you just fine, Clarke. They listen to you and they respect you. Those are the important parts. The parts that they really need.”

“I’m the one that enforces the rules. Great. Exactly what they all want.” Clarke sighed. She could be fun. _Seriously._

“Just keep being yourself. They already like you, and they look up to you. So what if they don’t follow you around, begging you to blow stuff up. You’re still important.”

Clarke had her doubts, as she watched the cluster of kids crowding around Bellamy to hear his latest campfire story. She surveyed the group for a moment, before her attention was caught by Charlotte, who was sitting slightly off by herself, staring into the fire. She remembered the conversation from a few a few days earlier; she was ashamed to admit that she hadn’t really noticed Charlotte before. The other kids had taken up so much of her energy in the first few weeks, that it had been easy to miss the quiet twelve year old who seemed to keep to herself. 

“Hey, Wells? I’m going to go talk to Charlotte, okay?”

Wells nodded. “I should get back to my kids, too. I’ll talk to you later.”

Clarke approached Charlotte slowly, before sitting down gingerly on to the log next to her, being careful not to sit too close for fear of making her uncomfortable. Clarke wasn’t sure that she had even had a conversation with the young camper, besides quick interactions during meals. 

“Hey.” Charlotte startled slightly at being addressed, and Clarke grimaced. Let’s try that again. “How was your day?”

She shrugged. “It was fine. We made clay animals today in arts and crafts, and that was pretty cool.”

Clarke smiled. “Oh yeah? You liked working with the clay?”

“I made a bird. I think it turned out pretty good.” Charlotte didn’t elaborate any further, sticking with the bare minimum of details.

“Who do you hang out with in your cabin?”

Charlotte’s face immediately fell, and Clarke couldn’t decide if she had screwed up by asking the question. “No one. Not really, anyway. No one is really mean to me, but I’m not friends with any of them.”

“Oh.” Clarke wasn’t sure what to say. “Well, if you ever want to hang out, I have the keys to the arts and craft cabin.” She winked and grinned at the young girl, whose expression did not change at all.

They sat there awkwardly for another few minutes, before Clarke finally had to round up her campers to head back to the cabins. She turned back to Charlotte before leaving.

“Well, I’ll see you later!” Charlotte just nodded, her eyes not leaving the fire.

_That definitely could have gone better._

* * *

It was a couple days later, laying in the grass in the clearing between the cabins, that Bellamy told them of his conversation with camp director Kane. 

“He said that Charlotte came to him and asked to go home. Said she wasn’t happy here, and that it wasn’t anyone’s fault, but she wanted to leave.”

Clarke sighed deeply, the air leaving her lungs in a rush. The night was hot and cloudless; the stars above them felt close enough to touch, from where she lay with Raven at one shoulder and Bellamy at the other, Miller laying in a similar position at Bellamy’s other side. 

“I talked to her a few days ago, but I might have made it worse.” Clarke admitted quietly. “I asked her about her friends, but I think I just reminded her of how lonely she was.”

“At least you made the effort.” Bellamy said, insistently. He paused for a moment, and his voice grew softer. “I talked to her last night about her nightmares, and I thought I got through to her… but I guess I just convinced her that it was time to leave.”

They were all silent, and Clarke tilted her head to one side, trying to find the Little Dipper in the sky above them. She could always find the Big Dipper without any problem, but the Little Dipper normally evaded her. Her head was tilted slightly towards Bellamy when he started to speak again, and she could see him just out of the corner of her eye. “Kane said that this place just isn’t right for some kids. They always have one or two that ask to go home early, and it isn’t anyone’s fault. It doesn’t mean that we’re not trying hard enough. Just that this isn’t the right place.”

Clarke couldn’t help wondering what would have happened, though, if someone had noticed Charlotte earlier, worked harder at getting her involved with the other kids, finding something that she really liked to do. “I just feel like… we failed her, you know? Like we could have done _more_.”

She felt Raven shrugging against her shoulder. “Maybe, maybe not. I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m pretty sure that this place would have worked for me when I was younger… but I really don’t know. I can see how it could be too intense for a kid who just wasn’t ready to jump in.”

Miller spoke up for the first time. “How is Octavia taking it?”

“Not so good. You know Octavia. She considers it a personal failure and is really beating herself up over it. I’m sure that she’s going to be obnoxiously involved for the rest of the summer after this.” Bellamy smiled a small fond smile when he spoke of his sister.

They fell back into silence. 

“So…” Miller asked, “are we going to do “truth or truth?” again tonight?”

“Naw,” answered Raven. “Doesn’t feel right. All of my questions would just end up being depressing.”

It was true; the game was a way of decompressing, like a reward for surviving yet another day. And they had _survived_ the day, but one camper short. It just didn’t feel right. Clarke looked back up at the sky, her eyes sweeping through the points of light, and suddenly something popped back into her head. “I have a question! Where is the goddamn Little Dipper, Bell?”

Bellamy’s smile was grateful as he talked Clarke through the constellations. Maybe _surviving_ was sometimes good enough.

* * *

It just happened one day, and Clarke was probably the most surprised of any of them.

She was sitting under a tree, supervising her campers during their pre-dinner hour of quiet free time, when she suddenly flipped over the weekly activity schedule sheet on the clipboard that she always carried with her, and started to draw. 

One of her campers, a fourteen year old girl named Amanda with long hair that she braided back into pigtails, had climbed up to the first branch on the big twisted maple tree next to their cabin. She was lounging against the trunk of the tree, stretched out on the branch, and she had Raven’s copy of Harry Potter resting on her thighs as she read. The late-afternoon sunlight was filtering through the broad green leaves, it was just _perfect_ , and Clarke couldn’t help sketching her with her black ballpoint pen. She was rusty, definitely out of practise, but by the time the hour was over, the teenage girl peered out at her from her paper, all freckles and tan lines and pigtails, and contentment. 

During dinner that night, Clarke placed the sheet of paper next to Amanda’s empty plate, without comment. She continued on to her own seat at the table, but she glanced over to Amanda once she had sat down, and was pleased to see the girl grinning back at her. 

By the end of the week, Clarke had drawn every one of the senior girls - some in a caricature style, some as comic book characters and super heroes, some realistic with detailed shading. She found it easy to settle back into the motions; sketching with one hand while eating lunch with the other, drawing by light of a flashlight after lights out while waiting for the girls to fall asleep. After not drawing for so long, Clarke was most surprised at how _calming,/i > it was. Not just a way to pass the time, but she truly felt lighter in a way that she hadn’t since her father died. _

Once word got around the camp, Clarke was suddenly inundated by kids at arts and crafts time, wanting to sit next to her so they could ask her advice on whatever they were working on. Soon, she had campers bringing her their own drawings at meals and campfires. 

One afternoon, a twelve-year-old girl shyly handed Clarke a friendship bracelet - braided in shades of pink and purple and blue - and she blushed when Clarke exclaimed over it and tied it on to her wrist. 

Later that week, she was sitting next to Bellamy on the dock while the campers were swimming, when he reached out and took hold of her wrist. His fingers gently traced over the rainbow of breaded and braided bracelets that Clarke had suddenly accumulated in the past few days. His eyes crinkled as he smiled widely.

“So, what does a guy have to do to get a Clarke Griffin original of his own?” He asked, his lips curled into a good-natured smirk. 

Clarke couldn’t help blushing at the insinuation. His fingers were still lightly tracing over her forearm and she shivered a bit at the soft touch. _Two can play at this game._

“I only draw someone when I’m _inspired_ to do it. I guess you just need to inspire me.” Bellamy breathed in sharply, and his fingers tightened on her wrist for just a moment.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He finally replied and his voice was raspy and an octave lower than usual.

He let go of her wrist a moment later (because teenagers were never known for _not gossiping_ and that was the last thing that any of the counsellors needed) but Clarke knew that she hadn’t misread the hint of _promise_ in his tone.

* * *

The most important thing about being in the middle of a prank war, as Clarke quickly learned, was to never, _ever_ let your guard down. Turn on all of the lights before entering a room, check your shoes before putting them on and your bunk before getting in, and sniff your toiletries before using them. 

Trust. No. One. 

For the most part, everyone was sticking to high annoyance, low actual destruction pranks. Duct taping all your belonging to the ceiling, stealing all your clean socks, using the craft cabin’s entire supply of googly eyes to make _everything_ stare at you. That sort of thing. Clarke was pretty sure that someone had messed with her sunscreen bottle and replaced her SPF 45 with a much lower SPF, but though she had the sunburn as evidence, she couldn’t really _prove_ anything. 

Raven had laughed at her misfortune for a full day, though. 

In the end, though, it was the candy in the shower head that finally broke them. 

It really was a brilliant prank, particularly at a place like a summer camp, where you were outdoors more often than not. Clarke, Raven, Bellamy, and Miller had endured three days of feeling vaguely sticky, and being followed by every sugar-loving insect in the entire forest, before Octavia had finally confessed and showed them how she had stuffed their shower heads full of Lifesavers candy. It was brilliant, it was devious, it was perfectly _Octavia_ , and it absolutely demanded a response at a similar scale.

A few days later, Bellamy caught Raven by the elbow as they entered the campfire clearing. “If I get the supplies, can you wire up some lights and speakers?”

She raised her eyebrow. “You entirely underestimate my skills, Blake. Tell me when and where.”

Over the next week, Raven and Bellamy would periodically disappear during campfires and during the free hour before dinner. She also noticed that they had started taking Monty, one of Bellamy’s fifteen-your-old campers - a shy kid with an easy smile and programming skills that Clarke was not willing to question - when they disappeared. Though Clarke knew the bare minimum of details, she and Miller were eagerly waiting to see the actual execution of the plan.

It went down like this:

During one campfire (a Sunday night, when the marshmallows and chocolate had been brought out, and the campers were thoroughly occupied), Bellamy approached Clarke casually. “Tonight.” Is all that he whispered, before giving her his trademark smirking grin.

After the kids had settled down, bellies full of sugar, lazy and content, Bellamy took a seat on the centre log, and asked if anyone would like to hear a ghost story. Unsurprisingly, the kids were eager, and they moved closer so that they could hear him speak. 

The story was simple. In his normal no-nonsense voice, he described how he had found a handwritten journal in the small collection of books — they called it their library, but it was really no more than a couple bookshelves in the dining hall — that was some girl’s diary that she had written during camp. On one day, a day in mid-summer just like today, she had written about seeing lightning and hearing thunder, despite the day being clear and cloudless. The tale that he laid out was formulaic, but he told it well. As he spoke, his voice gradually became lower, darker, more ominous. As he reached the climax, with the ghost staring into the cabin with glowing eyes, the kids were all frozen silent, held in rapture by the story. He finished, of course, by describing how he had gone looking at the camp records to find mention of the camper who had written the diary, only to find no evidence that she had ever existed. 

Clarke had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. It was a classic campfire ghost story, complete with every imaginable horror story trope. It was so _simple_ that it should have been obvious, but only if you knew what you were looking for. 

After lights out, Raven directed all of their campers out of the cabin and into the clearing. Bellamy and Miller were already waiting for them, and together, they led all forty senior boys and girls into the trees directly next to the junior girls cabin. The kids could barely contain their excitement, all hushed giggles and careful tiptoeing, instantly brought together by the camaraderie that comes with pulling off this sort of feat. Bellamy pulled out his cell phone, opened the app that Monty had programmed for them, and then mouthed silently to the group. “Ready?” He was met with 43 excited nods. 

He tapped the button on his screen, and Clarke could see a strobe light flashing from where Raven’s cell phone had been hidden under the eaves of the cabin — right over top of Maya and Octavia’s open window. A second later, thunder boomed out of a hidden speaker. Bellamy waited a few seconds, before triggering it again. After the last crash of thunder, they saw Octavia’s face in the window; she looked out into the trees, and Clarke froze and held her breath. She could feel all of the kids around her instinctively doing the same. Octavia frowned, but her face disappeared back into the cabin, and a second later they heard her bed frame creaking as she laid back down. 

Bellamy triggered the light and sound effects a few more times. Monty and Raven had done a good job with _whatever_ they had done, and the thunder was particularly convincing. Sometimes low and rumbling and in the distance, and sometimes a loud boom that sounded right over head. After a couple minutes, campers began appearing at the windows, drawn by the noise of the “thunderstorm”. Clarke knew that she was grinning with glee, just as delighted as their kids, and she couldn’t wait to see the next step. Her eyes met Bellamy’s, but he just hooked his chin to the side, gesturing over to a thick clump of trees. It was then that Clarke noticed Raven for the first time; she was standing slightly apart from the others and holding a small power switch… her face tensed in concentration, just waiting for the right moment. 

She knew exactly when it was time. Raven’s face lit up in anticipation, smug and devious, and then she flicked the switch. Immediately, the trees around them were filled with red glowing eyes. Hundreds of them - small points of red light that peered out of the forest. 

It was fucking glorious. 

They could hear shrieking, and the kids at the windows suddenly disappeared, retreating back into the safety of the cabin. Clarke could almost feel the tension of the kids around her, trying to hold in their reaction as long as possible, before they suddenly broke. The forest was filled with the sounds of laughter, loud celebrating, and Clarke found herself returning several high fives before she even knew what was happening. As she watched, Raven tackled Bellamy, enfolding him in her arms and holding on for a long moment. She couldn’t see Raven’s face from where she was standing, but she _could_ see Bellamy’s reaction. He was shocked for a moment, before his arms came up to tangle around Raven’s slim torso, pulling her against his body. 

The moment was broken when Octavia’s voice rang loud and clear from the cabin. “Bellamy _Fucking_ Blake, I am going to destroy you!”

“Go go go!” Miller shouted, and suddenly they were a confusion of colliding limbs and bodies, as they raced back to their own cabins breathlessly. 

Octavia was _livid_ at breakfast the next morning, but Clarke couldn’t help but think that it was all worth it, as she watched all of the senior campers riding high on the wave of their triumph. They had pulled it off, and it had brought their kids closer than ever. And if Clarke noticed the way that Bellamy was watching Raven curiously for the next few days, she didn’t mention a thing.

* * *

Bellamy finally got his drawing nearly a week later.

He had been sitting slightly off to the side during the campfire, for once not surrounded by kids all competing for his attention. Clarke dropped the paper into his lap, and she could hear his sharp intake of breath as he took in the image on the page. She couldn’t help grinning at his obvious reaction.

Clarke had been canoeing out in the lake the day before, sitting in the back to steer for the hapless fourteen year old in the front of the boat, when she caught sight of them on the shore. Bellamy and Raven were sitting on the dock, supervising their swimming campers, in the same place that Clarke sat with Bellamy several times a week. It suddenly struck her that, as Clarke had separate relationships with Raven and Bellamy, times when she was with one of them without the other present, they had that same relationship with _each other_. 

As she watched, she could see Bellamy giving Raven a cheeky grin, as Raven threw her head back, laughing loud enough that it echoed over the still lake. She continued staring for a minute, before realizing that she had stopped paddling and their canoe was starting to drift into the lake. She gave them one last long look — Raven was still giggling, while Bellamy watched her fondly — before turning the canoe back towards the shore. 

The entire rest of the day, Clarke could not get the image of her head. The way that they smiled at each other, made each other laugh… the the two just complemented each other. They were both so sad, so _intense_ , when they spoke about their pasts, and yet they had both come through it all, to end up so vibrant and _alive_. Clarke couldn’t help envying that; she felt almost like the two of them were in a different colour spectrum from herself. Vibrant colour contrasting her own black and white. That night, after Raven had fallen asleep, Clarke had pulled out the coloured pencils that she had borrowed from the crafts cabin, and started drawing the two of them from memory. Sitting on the dock — Raven in her red practical one-piece bathing suit and Bellamy in his black board shorts — and looking at each other, eyes met in silent laughter, intense and… something. Clarke wasn’t sure what that _something_ was, but she absolutely wanted to find out. 

Bellamy looked up at Clarke, and Clarke could feel herself flushing deep red. She refused to look away. 

“Is this how you see us?” His voice was just a little bit awed.

Clarke nodded. “I saw you two yesterday, and I just had to draw you.” She paused, and she knew that her uncertainty was creeping into her voice. “I hope you like it…”

“I love it.” Bellamy was quick to reassure her. “You really captured the…” He trailed off, unsure.

Clarke knew exactly how he was feeling. “Something.” She supplied, with a hesitant smile.

“Yeah.” He said softly, and when he looked up from the drawing, his smile was wide, his eyes crinkling at the edges like his entire face was laughing. 

Clarke suddenly realized why she had been so captivated by the two of them on the dock… why she had to draw it, why she had to force the issue. Because she was almost certain that Bellamy looked at _her_ in the same way that he looked at Raven, and she had no idea what that meant.

* * *

It was the beginning of their fifth week at camp, and Clarke and Raven’s kids were buzzing with excitement. 

Another summer camp — pretentiously named simply “The Woods” — was located on the same lake as Camp Ark, and the rivalry between the two camps was the stuff of legends. However, despite the years of animosity, no one could deny that their tree-top ropes course and rock climbing wall were actually _really super cool_ and somehow, an arrangement had been made to allow Camp Ark to use them. No one knew the true story of the fateful day that Kane had gone to meet The Woods camp director Anya (Clarke had never heard anyone use her last name, adding to the strange mystique), but Clarke had heard that Kane had returned after three days, covered in cuts and bruises, and muttering about the “tree people”.

It was clearly all gossip, but it was obvious that some shit had gone down.

The point was that, once a week, a group of campers made the two hour hike around the side of the lake, over to The Woods. The juniors had gone in the first two weeks of camp, and then the senior boys, and it was finally Clarke and Raven’s girls’ turn to make the much-discussed trek. As they walked, Raven led the group down the well-marked trail, and Clarke followed up at the rear, making sure that any stragglers kept up. The girls were animated; talking nearly non-stop as they picked their way through the forest.

At last, they arrived at The Woods, and they were met by possibly the largest guy that Clarke had ever met. Despite his fearsome appearance, Lincoln proved to be patient and soft-spoken, chatting with the girls as he showed them the way to the rock-climbing wall. There was another counsellor waiting for them there — a dark-skinned young woman that Lincoln introduced as Costia. 

After a quick safety talk and climbing demonstration, the girls were being helped into harnesses and tied on to the belay ropes. Lincoln and Costia were circling the girls, helping anyone who needed help, and making sure that they were all safely connected. With nothing left for her to do, Clarke found herself gravitating towards Raven. 

_As always._

She let her shoulder bump against the other woman’s shoulder in greeting. “What do you think? Should we be fearing for our lives, yet?”

Raven chuckled and raised one eyebrow at Clarke. “Well, the other groups all came back alive, but we could be the first.”

“I don’t know. I think we could take them.”

“Have you _seen_ Lincoln, Clarke? He’s twice the size of Bellamy.”

“You’re scrappy. I’d still pick you in a fight.”

Raven’s chest puffed out a bit. “Of course you would. I’m awesome.”

* * *

At some point, their _ritual_ had changed. Clarke and Raven still lay in the dark, waiting for the girls to fall asleep, but at some point they had started venturing out of the cabin and into the clearing, without even discussing it. 

On one hand, it was nice to share their routine with Bellamy and Miller. 

On the other hand, it meant that they were no longer confined to their own beds. It mean that, when Raven laid down on the grass next to Clarke and chose to pillow her head on Clarke’s shoulder, Clarke could just close her eyes and smile up into the darkness. It wasn’t a big deal. 

Unless it was. Clarke really had no idea.

She opened her eyes when she heard the sound of approaching footsteps, and she was surprised to see that it was just Bellamy tonight.

“No Miller?”

“He was defeated by Capture the Flag this afternoon. Said he’d come out tomorrow, but he wanted to turn in early tonight.”

Clarke was nodding at no one in particular, when Bellamy came over to lay down on her other side. His cheek was brushing lightly against his shoulder, as if he _wanted_ to be as close as Raven currently was, but wasn’t sure if he would be welcomed. 

When exactly had her life become this confusing?

“My turn?” Clarke could feel the movement of Bellamy’s jaw against her arm as he spoke.

“Yeah.”

He was silent for a long moment, and Clarke could practically _hear_ him thinking. Seriously, no subtle mode at all.

“First kiss?”

Raven snorted. “Now you’ve done it, Blake. I was wondering when we were going to get to this can of worms.” Clarke was puzzled, before realizing… _Finn_. Shit. “Ok, let’s do the short version before this gets way too awkward. I was thirteen and we’d known each other _forever_ , and one day I just decided to go for it. I kissed him, and it was actually pretty good, even though we were thirteen and had no idea what we were doing. And _blah blah blah_ , things were good until they sucked. The end.”

“Wait. Why would this get awkward? What am I missing?” Bellamy asked, his confusion evident.

“Short version again? Clarke and I dated the same guy. Concurrently.” She paused, and Clarke could hear Bellamy’s low whistle of amazement before Raven plowed ahead. “It’s fine. We’re over it. And actually, I feel like maybe Clarke is the best thing that I got out of my relationship with Finn, so…” She trailed off uncertainly. “Whatever. I don’t want to talk about Finn anymore. It’s Clarke’s turn.”

Clarke felt a little bit like she had emotional whiplash. It was like every time Raven got even a little bit close to opening up, she suddenly snapped closed again. And Clarke got it, but it didn’t make it any less confusing for her. 

“Um…” Clarke paused for a second, trying to recalibrate herself. “Ok. First kiss. I guess it was when I was at camp, actually. Um… her name was Lexa and she kissed me one day behind our cabin. We would have been fourteen years old, I guess.” Clarke hadn’t really thought about Lexa in a long time, she realized, and she blushed as the memories of that summer came back to her. “It was… really nice.”

“Oh yeah?” She could hear Bellamy’s smile in his voice. “What happened between you two?”

“We “dated” for the rest of the summer. In summer camp terms, that means that we held hands under the table at meals and made out in the woods whenever we got the opportunity. We exchanged contact info at the end of the summer, but she didn’t really live close by, and we lost touch after awhile.” It was a good memory; those weeks of feeling that rush of affection every time she and Lexa locked eyes with each other, the way she would catch sight of Lexa watching her at odd random moments, the exhilaration of liking someone and having them actually like you back. 

“I had had crushes on girls before, but Lexa was the first time that I really _knew_.”

“Knew what? That you’re…?” Raven left the statement pointedly open.

“Bi.” Clarke said, with certainty. “It’s always been less about the gender, and more about the person, though.”

She could feel Raven nodding against her neck, and she turned her head minutely so that she could look Raven in the eye. Raven looked… thoughtful, and Clarke couldn’t help wonder if something was starting to _click_. The moment felt weighty, and Clarke felt the need to do something to break the tension before Raven spooked again. 

“Anyway, you’re up, Bellamy.” She turned her head so that she was looking back up at the sky.

“My stories are so boring compared to both of yours. “Twelve years old, school dance, I think I was such a bad kisser than she avoided me for the entire rest of the school year.”

Clarke couldn’t help the snort of laugher. “I can’t imagine that to be true!”

“You didn’t know twelve year old me! I was pretty much a disaster. Big nerd, silly hair, taller than the entire rest of my class…”

“And that’s different from now, in what way?” Raven asked, with a smirk.

“See what I mean!” He laughed. “I’m a disaster.” 

Raven was still smirking, but she reached her arm over to pat Bellamy’s shoulder, and her arm brushed Clarke’s stomach in a way that made her _shiver_ , and there is no way that the other two don’t notice it, with the way that they were tanged together. 

“It’s okay, Bell. Apparently me and Clarke _like_ disasters.”

_Isn’t that the truth._

“Ok, “ Raven continued, “It’s my turn. Have either of you ever been in a threesome?”

Clarke almost choked, and she had to cough a few times before she could breath again. Next to her, Bellamy seemed to be having a similar reaction.

“I’ve only ever had sex with Finn, so I’m out. What about you two?”

Clarke managed to get out an embarrassed, “no,” at the same time that she heard Bellamy hesitantly start, “well, actually…” and that quite possibly just made the whole thing much more awkward.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could just barely catch Raven’s smug grin.

* * *

The last week of camp is a flurry of activity, as the senior campers make their preparations for their end of camp canoe trip. It’s almost a right of passage for the older kids — three days, exploring the lakes by canoe, sleeping under the stars at night. It’s a much-loved tradition at Camp Ark, and the younger kids are almost green with envy as they watch the preparations for the trip. 

And so, it’s not a big deal with Clarke ducks out during the game of Capture the Flag, to check to make sure that their campers have finished their packing and are ready to go the next morning. 

She comes back twenty minutes later, only to find Bellamy holding the flag, foot planted on a rock in a heroic pose, as he lectures his “troops” on perseverance and teamwork. He definitely throws in a reference to Cerberus, the three-headed dog of hell, at one point. The Trojans make an appearance in the conclusion.

The next morning, as the counsellors attempt to calm down their kids enough to get them to actually eat breakfast before setting out in their canoes, she drops a sheet of paper on his head as she passes by. The drawing depicts Bellamy in a cartoon style, complete with a stylized Camp Ark flag and a three-headed dog, lecturing the campers as if he is a general in a Renaissance painting. 

Clarke can’t help grinning cheekily. “Raven was right. Apparently we both like disasters.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bravenlarke trash right here! Come hang out with me on [Tumblr](http://sarahrunsfromzombies.tumblr.com/) if you're into that sort of thing.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her thoughts were interrupted by Bellamy’s voice, low and quiet. “You like her.” It wasn’t a question.
> 
> Clarke’s head snapped up to meet Bellamy’s gaze, and she considered denying it for a moment, but his eyes were soft and sympathetic and there really just was no point. _Like_ seems like an oversimplification, anyway. Clarke _adores_ Raven. Wants to spend every night with her head buried between her legs, drinking like a woman who hasn’t seen water in weeks. Wants to wake up in the morning curled around her back, and then make her pancakes because Raven really likes pancakes. So yeah, Clarke _likes_ Raven. No question. “I’m totally obvious, right?”
> 
> Bellamy chuckled. “Completely.”
> 
> “I suspected as much.” Clarke said, and she buries her head into Bellamy’s shoulder, hiding her face. He is warm and solid and comfortable and he feels _perfect_ in the same way that _like_ doesn’t really cover the depth of Clarke’s feelings for Raven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is the end! It got... longer than I expected. :D Thanks so much to everyone who has commented and sent me messages on Tumblr. You guys are all AMAZING! 
> 
> Please note the updated rating. Things get steamy near the end. As they do. 
> 
> Also, I made an 8tracks playlist of some of the music that I was listening to when writing this. It's all alt/indie/folk with a vaguely optimistic woodsy feel. :) [Listen here.](http://8tracks.com/sarah-mct/all-we-want-and-all-we-ever-could-have-hoped-to-be)

When Clarke’s alarm went off at 7:00 on the morning of the senior camping trip, she awoke with butterflies in her stomach.

She knew that part of the feeling was the overwhelming reality that she would be responsible for forty teenagers, for nearly four days. Of course, she was responsible for the kids at the camp, but this was just _different_. At the camp, there were always other adults around - Kane and the other camp administrators, the kitchen and facilities staff, who were always wandering around and checking on things - and the counsellors knew that they had back-up if they couldn’t handle a situation. Kane had introduced them to their two “guides” a few days earlier — two wilderness experts who were well-trained in first aid and survival techniques, who knew where they were going and how to keep everyone alive. But they weren’t camp employees, not really, and the actual job of keeping the kids happy and following instructions would fall to the four senior counsellors. 

No pressure.

And then there was the other side to it all. The… _personal_ side, that had been occupying Clarke’s thoughts more and more with every passing day. Every morning, Clarke would wake up, and the first thing she saw was Raven — sprawled on top of the sheets (it was still much too hot and humid in the un-air conditioned cabins to even consider using the blankets), her tank top riding up to expose the flat fawn-colored expanse of her belly, her face sleepy and hair disheveled — and Clarke couldn’t help thinking about what the other woman’s body would feel like next to hers, sleep-warm and soft and yielding. For most of the day, she was in contact with Raven and Bellamy, as the three of them led their campers through their activities and meals. They checked in with each other almost constantly — quick conversations, a smile or a raise of their eyebrows, a gentle touch on the arm or hand. And then there was night time, after the campers were finally in bed, and the three of them curled up together on the grass, to debrief on their day, and to just _talk_ to each other. Clarke had quickly learned that Bellamy was big on casual physical contact, and the feeling of his arm around her, or his hand threading through her hair, or her head pillowed on his shoulder or stomach, had become almost as familiar as the sight of Raven first thing in the morning. It was confusing, but it was _comforting_ , and all Clarke knew was that she wanted _more_.

And now she was about to spend four days (and three nights) in close proximity to both Raven and Bellamy, and the thought made something flutter deep in Clarke’s stomach. 

Clarke hurried through her morning routine and breakfast, pausing only to (literally - she drops it on his head as he shovels cereal into his mouth) drop off her newest drawing with Bellamy. She and Raven ushered their girls back to the cabins to pick up their bags for their trip, and then it was on to the beach where they would be launching the canoes. Emori and Nyko (looking every bit the part of the wilderness guides, all dreadlocks and olive green clothing) are waiting for them with the canoes, and it doesn’t take long before they’ve divided up with two people in each canoe, their gear packed in waterproof bags and heaped into the centre of the boat, and they’re ready to set off.

Raven, dressed in skin tight black athletic shorts and sporting a life jacket over her red tank top, is barking orders at the fourteen year old girl in the front of her canoe. The girl barely reacts - all of the kids are used to her dramatic blustering by now — and Clarke’s finds herself seeking out Bellamy in the group, unconsciously looking to share the joke. She blushes slightly when she realizes that he’s already meeting her eyes, but Bellamy just raises his eyebrows with a grin, while tipping his chin towards Raven. 

_That girl,_ he seems to say, and Clarke totally gets it. _That girl, indeed._

* * *

Their route is entirely designed to take advantage of their first day energy and excitement, and they spend most of that day paddling. Within the first hour, they have left the familiar waters of their home lake, and are paddling against the gentle upstream current. By late morning, the river becomes narrow and rocky, and Nyko directs to them a sandy beach area and then shows them how to portage. For nearly a mile, they walk along the shore with the canoe carried on their shoulders. 

It’s gruelling work and even the most energetic campers are worn down and complaining by the time they stop for lunch. The camp kitchen had packed their lunch for the first day - sandwiches and cut fruit and vegetables - and Clarke flopped on to a rock next to Bellamy and Miller with her own lunch bag, once all her kids were settled. Immediately, Bellamy’s hand came up to lightly grasp her upper arm, tightening gently around her bicep, and Clarke felt something _twist_ at the casual affection.

“You holding up, Clarke?” He asked, and his voice was warm and teasing. 

Clarke paused as she unwrapped her sandwich, and rolled her shoulders, feeling the tension in her neck. 

“The only problem with pairing me with the smallest camper is that most of the weight sits on my shoulders when we portage the canoe.” Clarke said, with a slight whine.

Miller hissed in sympathy, even as Bellamy’s hand slid up from her bicep to the spot where her neck met her shoulder. He began to lightly massage the spot with his thumb and forefinger and Clarke’s eyes slipped closed almost immediately. It felt so good — the heat of his hand and the steady pressure of his thumb gently digging in to the tense muscle. It was also rather unfortunate, Clarke thought, because his fingers were skimming sensitive places on her neck and she knew that she wasn’t going to be able to blame the summer heat for the warm flush that she could feel blooming across her cheeks. His thumb brushed against the pulse point in her throat, and suddenly a deep groan escaped Clarke’s lips.

“Am I missing out on the free back rubs over here?” Clarke’s eyes snapped open at Raven’s voice. When their eyes met, Clarke could see something darker hidden beneath the amusement. 

“He didn’t offer me one, either.” Miller said, his voice sarcastic, but clearly entertained. 

Clarke blushed even further and she moved away from Bellamy, but not before looking up at his face somewhat shyly. It was only then that she registered his quickened breathing and blown pupils, and the realization of how her obvious arousal affected both Bellamy and Raven only stoked the fire. 

_This trip might just kill me,_ Clarke thought.

They were just finishing off their lunches, when Jasper came wandering over. His expression was equal parts mischief and misery. “Moms? Dads? It’s so hot out!” His whine became full-force. “Can we swim for awhile before we get back into the canoes?”

Bellamy and Miller just shrugged in unison, and Raven called over to Nyko and Emori. “What do you think? Do we have time for a swim?”

Their guides both wore expressions of bored indifference. “You have twenty minutes, unless you really want to set up tents in the dark.”

All at once, the kids were a flurry of movement, as they stripped off clothing and jumped into the river. Most of the campers were wearing their swimsuits under their clothing, and the ones that weren’t had no problem with jumping in fully clothed. 

Bellamy raised his eyebrows at them in question, an amused grin on his face. 

“I’m not sweating in my canoe all afternoon like an idiot.” Raven declared, and then she was stripping her tank top over her head and jumping into the water. 

“She has a point.” Miller said, and he followed her a second later. 

“C’mon Griffin, you can’t always be the responsible one!” Raven goaded from the water, where she was surrounded by shrieking and splashing teenagers. She was shivering slightly as she stood in the thigh-deep water, and she was a fucking _sight_ in her black shorts and hot pink sports bra. Camp rules mandated athletic-style one-piece swimsuits for counsellors, and Clarke was suddenly grateful for the rules, as she took in Raven’s toned torso. _Oh yeah, totally my type_ , Clarke thought.

Next to her, Bellamy whistled his approval through his teeth, and his thoughts were clearly mirroring her own. 

“We should probably go for a swim, right?” He asked.

“Definitely. For sure.” Answered Clarke, without taking her eyes off of Raven.

“Wouldn’t want to risk heat stroke.”

“Uh huh.”

Raven just laughed at them, splashing water at their feet as they hastily undressed.

* * *

As it turned out, they actually arrived at their campsite for the night with plenty of time before sundown. The kids were all high spirits and laughter as they set up their tents and arranged their sleeping pads and sleeping bags. 

Clarke couldn’t help noticing just how _small_ a two-person tent really was, as she laid out her own sleeping bag right next to Raven’s. The edges of the sleeping bags just barely touched when they left the necessary few inches around the perimeter of the tent to prevent moisture from wicking through the canvas. It wasn’t like they hadn’t been physically close — often curling into the other’s body as they laid in the grass and talked late at night — but there was something much more intimate about _sleeping_ in such close proximity. 

Raven smirked at her, as if reading her thoughts. “Are you a cuddler? Because it looks like we might not have a choice.”

Bellamy and Miller had somehow managed to snag a three-person tent, much to their obvious relief. They were both pretty big guys, after all, and Clarke had her doubts on whether they would have actually fit in a two-person tent. Their tent was set up on the opposite side of the camp from Clarke and Raven’s; Emori and Nyko’s tents rounded out their four points that surrounded the camp site.

After dinner (mac and cheese from a box, much to the delight of many of the teens) and the campfire (Jasper and Monty insisted on telling a story involving a robot war that Clarke was pretty sure was _actually_ the plot of Terminator 2), they finally start ushering the campers into their tents around 10:30. It’s much earlier than most of the kids would ideally want to go to bed, but _screw it, kids, your counsellors are old and tired and ready to go to sleep_. Kane had been clear that they needed to stay awake until all of the tents were silent, and then one of the counsellors would have to get up once an hour, to do a quick walk around the camp to make sure that everyone was still quiet and staying out of trouble. 

It was well after midnight before silence had finally settled over the camp. Clarke was snuggled into Bellamy’s side, Raven’s legs stretched across both of their laps, as they sat next to the fire pit, staring into the dying embers of the campfire. They were pretty careful about obvious physical contact when the kids were around, but at some point it had just become expected that they would _touch_ , when they had the opportunity. 

Raven yawned, and her head tipped back to rest against the tree behind her, her eyes drifting closed slightly. Her voice was low and raspy when she spoke. “I’m toast. Crispy. Done. How are we going to work the checks tonight?”

“I’m fine for awhile longer. I can do the first check if you want to go sleep.” Clarke said. She was wound tight, to be honest. The butterfly feeling that had been there since she woke up had only intensified over the course of the day, and she was practically vibrating now, with Bellamy’s warm steady heat next to her, and Raven’s tan thighs stretched across the tops of her own legs. 

“I can stay up with you, if you want.” Bellamy offered. “I’ll just feel worse if I go to sleep now, just to wake up in a couple hours. Might as well just stay up for my own check.”

Raven and Miller quickly negotiated what times they would set their alarms for their own checks, and then they were off to their tents. Before she left, Raven nudged Clarke’s leg with her toe gently.

“You’ll be coming to bed in an hour?”

 _Coming to bed._ It just sounded so intimate, and _fuck_ , Clarke wanted to hear those words out of Raven’s mouth under different circumstances. She could only nod dumbly in response, and then Raven was walking away, stretching her arms up above her head as she went, so that her tank top rode up slightly, exposing the gentle curves of her spine and waist. 

Shit. Clarke wanted to _come to bed_ so much.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Bellamy’s voice, low and quiet. “You like her.” It wasn’t a question.

Clarke’s head snapped up to meet Bellamy’s gaze, and she considered denying it for a moment, but his eyes were soft and sympathetic and there really just was no point. _Like_ seems like an oversimplification, anyway. Clarke _adores_ Raven. Wants to spend every night with her head buried between her legs, drinking like a woman who hasn’t seen water in weeks. Wants to wake up in the morning curled around her back, and then make her pancakes because Raven really likes pancakes. So yeah, Clarke _likes_ Raven. No question. “I’m totally obvious, right?”

Bellamy chuckled. “Completely.”

“I suspected as much.” Clarke said, and she buries her head into Bellamy’s shoulder, hiding her face. He is warm and solid and comfortable and he feels _perfect_ in the same way that _like_ doesn’t really cover the depth of Clarke’s feelings for Raven. 

_Fuck._

“So what’s stopping you from just going for it?”

 _You._ Clarke thinks, immediately, but she manages to keep the word from bursting out of her chest. She can’t believe that her feelings for Raven could be _completely obvious_ and yet Bellamy could be absolutely clueless as to how she feels about him. But maybe that really is the entire problem; they’ve been talking to each other all summer, without ever really _talking_.

Clarke is quiet for long enough that Bellamy takes her silence as _uncertainty_. 

“Well, we only have a few days left of camp. You should talk to her. I’m almost certain that she feels the same way about you.” He’s smiling, but there is something _sad_ in his warm brown eyes, and maybe this isn’t as complicated as Clarke originally thought.

* * *

Clarke somehow managed to sleep through Raven’s 4:00 am camp check, but she can’t ignore the sound of two crows arguing with each other in the tree _right above her head_ and so, Clarke found herself wide awake just after dawn. It’s too early to get up, and her sleeping bag is warm and comfortable, and so she instead focused on _not_ watching Raven sleep.

_That’s definitely not creepy at all._

The truth was, although Clarke was used to waking up in the same room as Raven, there was something much more intimate about waking up _right next_ to another person. She can hear the quiet rustle of her sleeping bag as she breaths in and out. Can feel the gentle press of Raven’s leg against her own, as they both instinctively drift towards the warm body heat. It feels _nice_ and it is doing nothing to distract Clarke from the conversation that she knows that she needs to have with the other woman very soon. 

And Bellamy, for that matter. 

_How was this even supposed to work?_ Clarke wondered. She knew the word for it - polyamory - but being familiar with the concept wasn’t doing a thing to alleviate her anxieties. The simple fact was that Clarke was almost certain at this point that she was falling in love with two people at the exact same time. It was confusing, and complicated, but what if it didn’t have to be? 

_Oh god, my mother is going to have a heart attack_ , Clarke thought, and she had to hold her hand over her mouth to suppress the giggles. 

Clarke was still deep in thought, when she heard the quiet rustling of footsteps next to her tent. “Clarke? Raven? Are you up?” It was Bellamy.

She called out softly. “I’m up. I’ll wake up Raven and we’ll be out in a minute.”

The footsteps retreated. 

“What does he want?” Raven’s voice was scratchy with sleep, and partially muffled into her sleeping bag.

“I think it’s time to get up.”

Raven’s only response was to snuggle closer into Clarke’s side, and one arm snaked out of her sleeping bag to wrap around Clarke’s waist. “No. I’m comfy here.” She buried her face into Clarke’s shoulder, and Clarke could feel her heart beating faster in her chest. She laid perfectly still for a long moment, and she could hear Raven’s breathing slowing as she drifted back to sleep. 

It felt… _amazing_ , but Clarke knew that she needed to move. They needed to talk first, and… well, there were also forty campers to deal with. _Ugh_.

By the time she managed to extricate herself from Raven’s grasp, the other woman was mostly awake. And completely unrepentant about their previous position. “I asked you yesterday if you were a cuddler, but I never said that I _wasn’t_.”

This day was definitely going to kill her.

* * *

It took exactly as long as you would imagine for forty teenagers to pack up their tents, eat breakfast, and load everything back into their canoes, but they were eventually back on the river and paddling upstream. Before long, the river widened to a larger lake, and they picked their way along the shoreline for most of the morning. The kids were more subdued on the second day; tired and not quite as over-excited now that paddling had become routine, and the quiet was a relief to Clarke. For most of the morning, she was left alone with her thoughts — and she had quite a lot to think through. 

They stopped for lunch on a small island — really just a large rock that jutted out of the water, with a few scraggly pine trees daring to grow in the thin stony soil. Clarke was sharing her Nutella and banana sandwich with Miller (Bellamy and Raven had both given her disgusted looks as she slathered the chocolatey spread on her bread and _what the hell was wrong with them_?) when she heard one of the older girls - Harper - talking to Emori and Nyko.

“Does anyone ever jump off of those cliffs?” She pointed over to the shoreline across from their island. 

Nyko shrugged. “Sometimes.”

Immediately, the kids were a mass of whining. “ _Please?_ Can we jump?”

Clarke sighed. _Would it have killed him to say that catastrophic death was certain?_ She sent a glare in the direction of Nyko, who was busy adjusting a buckle on his pack and pointedly not looking at her. 

“Is it safe?” Raven asked, intrigued. 

Emori at least looked _slightly_ reassuring. “Some of the kids jumped last year — the easiest place to climb to and jump is only about thirty feet up, hardly higher than a high dive at a public pool. Lots of people do it, so there is a pretty easy to follow path up to the place where it’s safe to jump. And the water is certainly deep enough.”

“What do you think?” Bellamy was looking at Clarke as he asked.

“C’mon, Mom…” Jasper whined, and not for the first time, Clarke regretted not squashing the nicknames when they first started. 

Clarke sighed. “Fine.” The kids immediately erupted into cheers. “But you need to follow the path that Emori shows you, and no one breathes a word of this to Kane. Not. A. Word.” She tried to affect her most threatening expression, but Raven just grinned and clapped her on the shoulder affectionately, ruining the entire effect. 

“That’s the spirit, Griffin. Look, we managed to make a rebel out of you, after all.” Raven said, all smirk. 

Nyko and Emori showed them to a small beach area next to the cliffs, and they pulled their canoes up out of the water. The cliffs rose up high above them, dotted with scraggly pine trees clinging to the rock, but Clarke could clearly see a well-worn path winding through the undergrowth. About two-thirds of the kids immediately started up the path, scrambling over the rough rock; Miller and Bellamy were close behind. 

Clarke’s heart was pounding in her chest. The cliffs looked even bigger now that they were right next to them and all Clarke could think about was how they were going to get a kid with a broken leg or a dislocated shoulder back to the camp. _Shit._

Suddenly, there was a shout from far above, followed by a splash. Clarke held her breath, staring into the swirling water at the base of the cliff… where Myles suddenly popped out with a triumphant holler. He swam over to the beach area, and waded out next to the canoes. 

“That was fucking awesome!” He yelled out, his head tipped back as he squinted up at the teens on the cliffs above them.

Eventually, all of their kids made it safely back to ground-level. Some by themselves, some in twos, hands clutched tightly as they hit the water. Clarke couldn’t help cracking a grin when she saw Monty standing up on the cliff, eyes tightly shut, and flanked by Harper and Jasper on either side as they jumped. Even Miller followed after them, his low yell echoing across the still lake, as he hit the water. 

Clarke tensed, waiting for Bellamy to follow, and so she nearly jumped into the air when he suddenly appeared in front of her, skidding on the steep rock as he hurried down the incline. He held his hands out towards her and Raven.

“C’mon. We’re doing this.”

Raven smirked. “Of course we are. Let’s go, Clarke.” It wasn’t even a question, but Clarke still hesitated.

Immediately, she was surrounded by a chorus of encouragement from forty teenagers. 

“C’mon, Clarke. Are you ready to be a badass?” Bellamy goaded, smug. 

She groaned. There was absolutely no way that she was going to get out of this. “Fine!” She grabbed Bellamy’s hand, laughing when the kids all started to whoop and cheer. Bellamy grabbed Raven with his other hand, and suddenly Clarke was being dragged up to the top of the cliffs.

When they reached the rocky outcrop, Clarke couldn’t help peering down at the water below her. The afternoon sunlight glistened off of the calm lake, painting the water in shades of deep blue and green. She raised her chin, looking out over the lake, and she could see the tiny island where they had stopped for lunch, and the distant pine-covered shores where they would be heading on to — if she survived this — to set up camp for the night. 

Abruptly, her contemplation was broken by a cheer from below. Raven gave her hand an encouraging squeeze.

“Together?” Bellamy asked, hesitant.

A wide smile spread across Clarke’s face and she gripped both of the hands in her own tightly. “Together.”

And then they jumped.

When Clarke broke the surface of the water a few seconds later, the first thing that she was aware of was that she was _laughing_. Raven was cheering loudly as she lazily swam towards the beach, while Bellamy was simply watching them both, making sure that they were both okay, before his mouth turned upwards and his eyes crinkled as he started towards shore. 

“Aren’t you glad that you decided to go for it?” Bellamy asked, once they were all back on the beach, and starting to load back in to their canoes.

“Yeah,” agreed Clarke, nodding, even as she wondered how she was going to gather the courage to _jump_.

* * *

They arrived at the campsite in the late afternoon, and it was immediately obvious that they were going to have company for the night. The group campsite — really just a large clearing in the woods with a fire pit — was clearly labelled _Group Campsite A_ and _Group Campsite B_ , with just a few trees and bit of undergrowth to divide the two areas. The other side of the campsite was already occupied, the tents already set up, and a campfire already in the works in the fire pit. 

As they hesitantly ventured into their side of the site, Clarke caught a glimpse of Nyko out of the corner of her eye. He was greeting one of the men from the other group enthusiastically, doing that weird manly side-hug thing, and clapping each other on the back. As she watched, Clarke suddenly realized that she recognized the other man. If anything, he would be hard to forget. Lincoln. The Woods.

_Oh._

It made sense. This campsite was an easy two-day paddle away from their own lake, and one of the few group campsites that could accommodate a group as large as theirs. Clarke sighed — _the rumours had to be exaggerated, right?_ — before making her way over to Lincoln to say hello. 

It turned out that Lincoln was just as friendly and agreeable as Clarke remembered. And Anya was just as scary as the rumours described. Even more scary, perhaps, Clarke thought with a admiring glance.

Clarke and Raven had just gotten their tent set up ( _”Have you heard about having sex while camping? It’s fucking in tents!” Raven whispered with a flirtatious grin, before dissolving into giggles that lasted for a solid five minutes._ ) and were busily arranging their sleeping pads inside, when Clarke heard the quiet sound of approaching footsteps. 

“What do you need?” She called out. “We’ll be done here in a couple minutes and then we’re going to start cooking dinner.”

The voice that answered was hesitant. “Clarke?”

“Yeah?” Clarke answered. She stuck her head out of the tent, and was surprised when the person outside was _not_ one of her campers, but instead a tall, slim woman, with wavy brown hair that reached most of the way down her back. She was dressed in khaki shorts that hung loose on her hips, a deep olive green tank top, and black hiking boots; she looked like she _belonged_ in the forest, comfortable in a way that Clarke knew that she never quite was, herself. 

It took Clarke just a moment to make the connection. “Holy shit! Lexa?” She asked, amazed.

“Yeah.” Lexa answered, with just a hint of shyness. “I thought I recognized you when you first got here, and then I heard Lincoln say your name…”

It was at that moment that Raven popped out of the tent, a look of avid curiosity on her face. “Hey, I’m Raven!” She introduced herself casually, but she stepped just a few inches closer to Clarke than she normally would, and Clarke almost laughed out loud at the obvious display. 

Lexa nodded minutely, almost to herself, before turning back to Clarke. “I need to head back to my camp, but we’ll talk later?” It was phrased like a question, but Clarke caught the edge of command in her voice.

“Of course. I’m looking forward to catching up.” Clarke smiled widely, despite the awkwardness. 

As Lexa walked away, Raven huffed quietly in annoyance. “So, Lexa? I’m going to guess that that is summer-camp-first-kiss-girl?”

Clarke had to bite her lip to hold back her smirk at Raven’s reaction. “It is. You don’t need to beat her up to prove anything. She’s pretty badass, but I’d still pick you.”

* * *

Despite the fabled animosity between the two camps, the kids all sort of came together during the campfire. If she had to guess, Clarke would say that spending six weeks with the same people day and night was enough to drive anyone to risk a little bit of social contact…. even with your stated arch rivals.

As the kids mingled around the fire pit, trading s’mores recipes (Clarke was amused to see that her peanut butter, Nutella, and banana version seemed to have caught on with a large segment of the campers) and telling stories about their own camp experiences, she couldn’t help watching Lexa as she interacted with the other counsellors from The Woods. Lexa had always been self-confident — it had been Lexa who had kissed Clarke first, back when they were both fourteen, and before she had even really understood her own feelings — but she seemed to be at ease now, in a way that seemed out of place from the girl she had been back when she and Clarke covertly kissed in the woods. Her posture was poised and tall, and a small smile crept on to her face from time to time, as she spoke. Clarke couldn’t help envying the easy way that she carried herself. 

Clarke watched from the other side of the campfire as another woman sank down on to the rock next to Lexa, and Clarke immediately recognized the familiar face - Costia, Lincoln’s helper at the rock climbing wall. Lexa’s posture immediately changed, and she leaned in to the other woman minutely, without even looking to see who it was that had sat down. Clarke was positive that Lexa wasn’t even aware that she had done it.

_Interesting…_

Bellamy suddenly raised his voice from where he was sitting, several kids away from Clarke. “Anyone want to hear a story before bed time?”

Their Ark campers were enthusiastic as always, and it wasn’t long before the Woods kids were calling out as well, requesting the scariest ghost story that Bellamy could tell. Suddenly, Raven was at Clarke’s side, and she bumped her shoulder against Clarke’s in greeting. Raven had changed into her evening camp clothes — jeans and a faded maroon hoodie that looked unbelievably soft — and she had let her hair down from her usual ponytail at some point during the campfire. She looked so _comfortable_ and Clarke couldn’t help sinking into her just the slightest bit, so that their sides were pressed against each other as they sat on the log. 

Bellamy’s story was indeed the scariest one yet, and soon the kids were all clustered around him, held in silent suspense by his low husky voice. He gestured widely with his arms, suddenly bringing his hands together in a loud _clap_ and the kids closest to him jumped in surprise. Clarke felt a rush of affection as she watched him with the campers, and a smile crept on to her face, despite the dark tone of the story. Her conversation with Octavia felt like it had been so long ago — during the early weeks, back when Clarke and Bellamy could barely hold back their biting tones when they spoke with each other — but Octavia’s words from that campfire rang entirely true. Bellamy was protective to a fault, and he considered each of these kids to be _his own_ and would do anything to make sure that were happy and okay. 

Clarke was still deep in thought when Bellamy finished his story, and then finally excused himself from the cluster of teenagers, to make his way over to where she and Raven were sitting.

“Those seem like pretty serious thoughts for s’mores and ghost stories.” He said, teasingly, but with just an edge of concern in his voice. Somehow, Bellamy had always been able to read her, even from the very beginning, and the thought should have unnerved Clarke, but it just felt _right_.

She smiled reassuringly. “I was just thinking about the first few weeks. You know, when we hated each other.”

“Clarke..” Bellamy started, and his face was filled with guilt. “I know I apologized for how I was in the beginning, but if you’re still—“

She cut him off. “We’re good. I get it.” She placed her hand on his arm and gave a tiny squeeze. “You care about these kids, and they need someone to look out for them. I’m just glad that we’re looking out for _each other_ now, too.”

Bellamy let out a deep breath, and his face softened. “You’re not what I expected, Clarke. I’ll tell you that. I’m glad that you had my back here this summer. Both of you.” He looked pointedly at Raven, as he spoke. “We make a good team.”

His words were still echoing in Clarke’s head an hour later, as they finally got the last of the kids into their tents, mostly quiet and settled. They had just started discussing their night check schedule, when Clarke caught sight of Lexa, standing slightly off to the side from the other Woods counsellors, as they went through their own night time routine. Clarke met Lexa’s eyes for just a moment, and then Lexa was turning away, to listen to whatever Anya was saying.

“Hey, guys?” Clarke was saying, before she even knew what she was doing. “Why don’t you get some sleep and I’ll do the first check. I want to catch up with one of The Woods’ counsellors. She’s an old friend.”

Raven glared, suspicious. “Are you sure you’ll be alright by yourself?”

“I’ll be fine.” Clarke said, amused. “They might be Camp Ark’s sworn enemies, but i’m pretty sure that I can handle them.” She gave Raven a wink.

“I don’t know about that.” Bellamy said. “Lincoln has been acting weird around me all night. Every time I look at him, he won’t even make eye contact.”

Clarke finally managed to convince Raven and Bellamy that she would be _just fine_ , and then they were heading to their own tents, as she picked her way through the dark underbrush to the other campsite. 

Lexa was by herself at the fire pit — the fire long since reduced to just embers — and she didn’t seem surprised in the least when Clarke approached.

“Hey.” Clarke greeted.

“Hey.” Lexa answered quietly. 

“Can I sit down?”

“Of course.” Lexa moved over on her rock, making room for Clarke to sit.

It had been five years, and Clarke wasn’t sure where to start. Their relationship had been short, but significant — her first love, really — and Lexa had been the one person who had really changed how Clarke saw herself. 

“So…” Clarke started. “You look good.” The words slipped from her mouth before she knew what she was saying, but it was the _truth_. 

Lexa smiled slightly. “You do, too.” 

“No, I mean, you look _really_ good. Comfortable, I mean. Happy.” Clarke said, all in a rush. 

Lexa looked uncharacteristically embarrassed. “Thanks. I am, I guess.” 

Over the next twenty minutes, Clarke learned that Lexa was studying political science at college and had met Anya through the university’s mountaineering club. She seemed quite content as she spoke about her classes and her friends, and Clarke couldn’t help feeling the familiar rush of envy, that she seemed to everything so figured out.

“And Costia?” Clarke asked. “How long have you two been together?”

Lexa frowned. “Why would you think that we’re together?”

Clarke was nearly positive that she had not mis-read Lexa’s body language. “Let’s just say that I’ve been on the receiving end of your heart eyes. They’re kind of hard to miss.” 

Lexa flushed a deep pink, and Clarke nearly crowed in triumph…. until Lexa neatly turned the tables around a second later.

“You’re one to talk about heart eyes. It’s quite the game, trying to figure out whether you’re hooking up with Raven or the curly-haired storyteller. Sorry, I didn’t catch his name. I was too busy dealing with Raven, who was trying to kill me with the heat of her glare. Strange that you flirting with him doesn’t seem to bother her, though. Why do you think that is?” Lexa smirked, her face the picture of innocent curiosity. 

Clarke buried her head in her hands. “I really am completely obvious, aren’t I?”

“Let’s just say that I was pretty good at reading you, at one time.” Lexa put her hand on Clarke’s shoulder, but Clarke refused to lift her head from where it rested on her knees. “So, if I understand the situation, all three of you have developed feelings for each other, but none of you has any idea what to do with those feelings, and so you’re just ignoring them and hoping that somehow the entire thing resolves itself?”

“That’s basically the cliff notes version.” Clarke nodded into her lap, sheepish.

“So what’s stopping you from just saying, ‘hey, I want to get naked in the woods with both of you, and then maybe we can cuddle and have breakfast… for the rest of our lives’?” Lexa asked, cheeky.

At this, Clarke lifted her head to look Lexa in the eye. “And what exactly is stopping you from saying the same thing to Costia?”

“Touche.”

Lexa bumped her shoulder against Clarke’s. “So maybe we really like these people and that’s why it’s so hard to just _go for it_.” She paused, thoughtful. “But maybe that’s why we really just need to do it. What’s the worst that can happen?”

“They freak out and everything is strained and awkward for the last few days of the summer?”

Lexa’s eyes narrowed. “Do you really think that is going to happen? Seriously?”

Clarke thought for a moment. Thought about Raven and her silly jokes and the way that she hid her vulnerabilities behind her over-confident mask. And Bellamy with his warm dark eyes and deep desire to protect the people that he loves from everything bad in the world. “No. No, I don’t think it’s going to happen.” The corners of Clarke’s lips turned up slightly.

“Me either.”

The two women sat in companionable silence for several minutes, both lost in thought. Eventually, the alarm on Clarke’s phone went off, signalling that it was time for her to check the camp, before going to bed, herself.

“Lexa?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.” Clarke said shyly. “It was really nice to see you again, and I’m glad that you can still sort out my life, even when I have no idea what I’m feeling.”

Lexa chuckled. “Anytime, Clarke. Anytime.”

* * *

When Clarke woke up the next morning, the butterflies that had been in her stomach for the last few days were finally gone. 

But she wasn’t exactly sure if the _fire_ that had replaced them was really any better.

 _Three days left of camp,_ she told herself, as she stared up at the grey canvas ceiling of the tent. _You have three days left._ Raven gave a small snore in her sleep next to her. _You will absolutely regret it if you don’t._

Clarke knew that she had been distracted over the last couple days; today, she felt hyper-aware. Like she had finally snapped out of her stupor, now that she had decided that she had to take action. She just… wasn’t exactly sure what that action was, yet. Whatever. This was still a step in the right direction. 

As they were getting ready to leave the campsite, Clarke sought out Lexa one last time. She found her near the lake, packing gear into one of her camp’s canoes, but she stood up as Clarke approached, her boots crunching in the wet gravel of the lake bed as she stepped forward. A faint smile graced Lexa’s lips. 

“I talked to Costia this morning.” She said, without preamble.

“Yeah?” Clarke asked, curious.

“Yeah.” Lexa’s smile widened, but she didn’t elaborate any further. “I think you’d probably have some luck if you tried that method, yourself.”

Clarke looked down, her toe nudging at one of the pebbles in the lake bed. “I’m working on it.”

“It’s a good first step.”

Lexa leaned forward and pressed her lips against Clarke’s cheek; her lips were soft and dry and just a bit chapped, and Clarke felt a flush of warmth at the once-familiar contact. 

“Take care of yourself, alright? And just try letting them in. You never know… you might like it.” Lexa stepped away again, as quickly as she came. “Now get out of here before Raven finds us and tries to kick my ass.”

Clarke laughed, and her voice sounded bright and golden, even to her own ears. “She really would, you know.”

When Clarke walked back over to the camp, she was surprised to see Bellamy and Lincoln standing close together, both looking painfully awkward.

Lincoln clapped Bellamy on the shoulder, stiffly. “I’ll see you around, alright?”

Bellamy just nodded, clearly confused. “Sure?” He squinted at Lincoln’s back as they larger man walked away.

“What the fuck was that?” He whispered to Clarke. “Did he just threaten to kill me?”

Clarke shrugged. _No idea._

“The Woods is fucking weird.” He muttered, as he wandered off to round up his campers.

* * *

As the day went on, the lake narrowed until Clarke suddenly realized that they were now on another river — this time paddling with the current, as they made their way back to their own lake. 

The current was strong enough that they could mostly just steer and let themselves drift, and everyone was in a good mood, after days of having to really _work_ to get anywhere. Some of the kids were randomly breaking out into Taylor Swift songs (Clarke was unsurprised to note that Bellamy knew _every word_ , even if he blamed it entirely on Octavia), while others started discussing exactly what they would do as soon as they got back to civilization. 

_Order a pizza, take a bath, and sleep on an actually comfortable mattress… preferably with some company for all three._ Clarke thought, grinning to herself wryly. 

Clarke’s attention was caught by Raven’s loud call of, “Hey, Bell!” just as she flicked a paddle-full of water into his face, as she passed him in her canoe. Bellamy coughed, wiping the water from his sunglasses with one hand, and grimacing slightly.

“You’re just lucky that you have a fourteen year old and a whole bunch of gear in your canoe, Reyes!” He shouted, threateningly, but he couldn’t hide his amusement, despite his best attempts. 

It was mid-afternoon when they pulled their canoes up on a sandy stretch of beach. The sand was soft underneath Clarke’s boots; different from the rocky shores that they had been stopping at over the last few days.

Emori pulled Clarke, Bellamy, Raven, and Miller aside, as the kids were busy unloading their gear from their canoes. “We normally sleep on the beach here, if the weather is good and you think that you can trust the kids not to do anything stupid. Whatever you guys want to do.”

Miller and Raven both looked like she had just told them that they had won the lottery, but Bellamy just turned to Clarke. He raised his eyebrows expectantly. “Up to you, Clarke.”

The other three counsellors were looking at her, and Clarke couldn’t help marvelling that they had actually gotten to the point where they were looking to her to make decisions for the safety of the group. They _trusted_ her, and her heart swelled at the idea. She grinned. “You can do the honours, Bell. Tell them that we’re sleeping on the beach tonight.”

The kids were understandably excited, and they all jumped around eagerly, pulling gear out of the canoes and staking out the best sections of beach for sleeping. Their enthusiasm was contagious, and Clarke found herself smiling uncontrollably. Sleeping under the stars, listening to the gentle lapping of the water… it sounded like the perfect way way to end the summer. 

Bellamy and Miller took a few kids to gather some firewood, and soon the kid were all gathered around the fire, roasting whatever they could cobble together from the food that they had left at this point of the trip. Nutella and marshmallow quesadillas? Great! Biscuit dough skewered on a stick and roasted over the flames? Even better! Raven had grabbed the last of the apples and wrapped them in foil, before tossing them directly into the coals to roast. Their haphazard _whatever you can cook on a stick_ dinner made for a kind of party atmosphere, and everyone was feeling relaxed and cheerful. 

It was a few hours later that Clarke found herself lying on her unzipped sleeping bag, staring up at the stars. She could hear Bellamy’s voice as he talked to the campers, and Raven’s distinctive laughter as they joked around. The moon was just a sliver in the sky, but the light reflected off of the lake, casting a pale white glow over the world. She closed her eyes for a moment (it could have been an hour; Clarke really had no idea) and when she opened them again, Raven’s face was hovering above her. 

“Hey.” Raven said, uncharacteristically quiet.

“Hey.”

Raven was smiling widely, carefree, and there was something about the quiet darkness, interrupted only by the laughter of their campers. The way that the stars peaked out from between the tall pines, looking almost close enough to touch. Something about this place and this night that made Clarke feel _bold_. 

“If we weren’t surrounded by teenagers right now, I would kiss you.” Clarke said, soft. She reached out with her fingertips to where Raven’s forearm rested next to her, as she propped herself up. She traced one finger down the inside of Raven’s arm, and Raven’s breath hitched at the gentle contact. 

“If we weren’t surrounded by teenagers right now, I would definitely kiss you back.” Raven answered, and her voice was low and full of _promise_. “We’re going for a night swim right now. You coming?”

Clarke propped herself up on to her elbows, and she noticed for the first time that the kids were all stripping off clothes, ducking into the trees and into the few tents that they had set up for changing. In the distance, she could hear gentle splashing as the first campers waded into the shallow water. Bellamy was already dressed in his swim suit, shirt stripped off, and standing near the waterline as he supervised — Clarke watched him for a moment and she knew that Raven was following her line of sight when she threw back her head in bright laughter. 

“We need to talk about that, too.” Raven said, once she had caught her breath. “Later, though. I want to go swimming.” And then she was pulling Clarke up from her blanket, and dragging her towards the water.

Raven was wearing a _definitely not camp-approved_ bikini under her tank top and shorts, and fuck it, what were they going to do, fire her at this point? Clarke pulled off her own tank top, leaving her in her sports bra and tight athletic shorts and _close enough_. She let Raven take her by the hand and pull her into the shallow water. 

By this point in the summer, the lake was warm — practically bathwater temperature — but it still felt good in the humid night air. Clarke kicked her legs up and let herself float on her back, drifting aimlessly. With her ears in the water, she could barely hear the excited shouts of their campers, but Raven’s hand was solid in hers and it kept her grounded, even as her eyes and mind were with the stars above them. When Bellamy reached them a few minutes later, Clarke reached out and grabbed his hand as well, and his smile was luminous. 

It was long after midnight by the time they managed to get all of their campers out of the lake and in to their sleeping bags. The four counsellors were sitting together on Clarke’s unzipped sleeping bag, dragged off to the side of the campers. Clarke’s head was pillowed in Raven’s lap, Raven’s hands idly combing through Clarke’s tangled hair as it dried from their swim. It was nearly impossible to enforce a strict “lights out” with the campers spread out in groups across their narrow strip of beach, but it only took a few stern warnings before they were at least quiet as they chatted, and began drifting off into silence group by group. 

Clarke could feel Bellamy watching her and Raven, and the weight of his stare made her feel warm and tingly… she was practically vibrating with anticipation. “So…” He finally started, unsure. “You two…?” He trailed off.

Raven was the first to speak. “We still need to sort some things out. You are encouraged to be present for that discussion.” She looked at Bellamy pointedly, arching one eyebrow.

“ _Shit._ ” Miller choked out, but his voice was amused. “I’m going to go get my sleeping bag and sleep on the other side of the camp. You three have been driving me fucking crazy all summer, and I’m happy for you but…” He chuckled. “Just sort your shit out. Have a good night and I’ll see you in the morning. Just remember that there are impressionable youth like twenty feet away.” He was standing up, and starting to wander over to the canoes to grab his own gear. “Idiots.” Clarke could hear him mutter fondly, as he wandered away. 

Bellamy flopped down on to his back on the blanket next to Clarke; his face was slightly dazed. “We managed to scare off Miller…” He stated, impressed. 

“I’m going to guess that we’ve been pretty much insufferable all summer.” Raven said. “I mean, watching two people who can’t sort out their own sexual tension is bad enough, let alone three.”

They were all silent, and Raven continued to run her fingers through Clarke’s hair; it felt good and she couldn’t help shivering slightly. Raven scraped her nails along Clarke’s scalp in response. 

“Clarke told me earlier that she wanted to kiss me, and I haven’t been able to think about anything else for hours.” Raven admitted quietly.

“So why don’t you do it?” Bellamy asked, his voice low and intense.

Clarke was suddenly looking up at Raven, and she could see the desire in Raven’s eyes. Her eyes flickered to Raven’s lips just for a second. It would be so easy to reach up, pull her face down to meet her…

She had to do this properly, though.

“It’s because of you.” Clarke turned her head minutely, so that she was facing Bellamy. He was laying next to her, their faces inches apart, and she could see the uncertainty in his face. “She hasn’t kissed me because of you. It’s taken me a long time to figure this all out, but now I think I finally get it.”

Clarke turned back to Raven — she needed her to listen, to _understand_ — and her hand fisted in Raven’s shirt until she was sure that the other woman was really _looking_ at her. “I think that I’ve been falling in love with you since the very first day. You’re gorgeous and confident and _cool_. But then sometimes you let me see the Raven beneath that exterior and… I want to get even closer.” Raven’s face softened; her warm eyes sparkling in the dim light. 

Raven’s bare thighs were warm and soft underneath her cheek when she turned her head to meet Bellamy’s dark gaze again. “And then there was you. You put up some pretty strong defences, but when you love someone, you love with your entire heart. And… as we got closer, you started treating me as one of those people… that you love.” Clarke forced herself to hold Bellamy’s eye contact as she spoke. “And I realized that I want to love you in return, even as I knew for sure that I was falling in love with Raven.”

Raven’s breath caught in her throat at Clarke’s words. Clarke could tell that she didn’t really believe them yet, and she wanted to keep saying them until there was no room for any doubt.

“And I tried to ignore my feelings for both of you because I didn’t want to decide…. but I’m starting to realize that maybe I don’t have to.”

Clarke suddenly felt exhausted, and she closed her eyes. She could feel Bellamy’s warm breath on her cheeks. Raven had started combing her fingers through Clarke’s hair once again.

“Maybe we _don’t_ have to decide.” Raven said, thoughtful. Her nails scratched lightly over the nape of Clarke’s neck, and Clarke had to bite her lip to hold back a groan.

“Choosing each other seems to have worked pretty well for us, so far.” Bellamy mused. 

Strong hands rolled Clarke on to her side, and then gently lowered her head on to the blanket. A moment later, Raven curled up against Clarke’s back. Bellamy’s face was still inches away from her own, and he cupped her hip with one hand, pulling her closer in to his side. It felt good, _comfortable_ , and Clarke closed her eyes and just let herself feel.

* * *

The next thing that Clarke was aware of was Bellamy squirming against her, trying to burrow closer in to her body as if she were some sort of protective cocoon. She groaned sleepily and tried to move away from him, but she was stopped by another body on her other side. Raven. 

“Time to wake up, lovebirds.” Miller was goading, as he gently nudged Bellamy with his toe. The sun was already high in the sky; it was obviously several hours after dawn.

Clarke rolled over, throwing her arm over Raven’s torso. One of them (she was absolutely sure that it had not been her, and her money was on Bellamy) had snagged another blanket at some point in the night, and thrown it over all three of them. She couldn’t really believe just how _comfortable_ she was at that moment. She could feel Bellamy’s breath on the back of her neck when he spoke.

“He does have a point. There is no sense in keeping everything G-rated around the kids, only to get caught snuggling when they wake up.” 

The three finally managed to extricate themselves from their warm cocoon, just as the first of their campers started to wake up. Their day was simple: pack up camp, and then begin the last of the short journey back to Camp Ark. It was really no more than a few hours of easy paddling, and so everyone was a bit lethargic as they readied their canoes. Clarke was feeling particularly drowsy after their late night, but she kept catching Bellamy and Raven’s eyes as they went about their tasks, and she could feel a thrill of _anticipation_.

The day went exactly as planned, and when they sat down to dinner at Camp Ark’s mess hall that evening, all of their campers were filled with tales of their adventures. Monroe and Harper were telling Wells about their epic “defeat” of The Woods (conveniently leaving out the part where they shared s’mores and tearfully said goodbye in the morning), while Octavia nodded in amusement as Sterling talked about their midnight swim. 

“We did good.” Bellamy murmured in Clarke’s ear, and she allowed her body to sink into his just the slightest bit. On the other side of the room, Octavia’s eyebrows shot up high on her forehead.

 _Shit_. 

Despite her best efforts to look casual for the rest of the evening, Clarke wasn’t the slightest bit surprised when she was accosted by Octavia at the campfire. The other girl was practically vibrating with excitement.

“You and my fucking brother!” Octavia crowed. “I _knew it_! I knew it from the very first day, when the two of you looked like you were going to kill each other!”

Bellamy suddenly appeared at Clarke’s side. “Can you keep it down, O? I don’t need everyone talking about—”

“Talking about what?” Raven’s eyes were twinkling with amusement. “Is there something going on between you and my girl?”

Octavia’s eyebrows raised; her eyes were flickering between the three of them as if she was watching a tennis match. Clarke held in her laugh as long as she could, but it finally spilled out, and soon Raven was joining in, her head thrown back in glee. 

_Too easy,_ Clarke thought, restarting another wave of giggles.

* * *

Clarke stretched her legs out on the grass, the blades tickling the backs of her knees as she moved. 

“Favourite part of the summer?”

Bellamy hummed thoughtfully. “I liked this.” He said, after a minute. “Just laying here and listening to you two talk about your own lives. This was my favourite part.”

It was pretty perfect, Clarke had to admit. What had started as her and Raven laying in their own beds at night had somehow evolved into _this_. The three of them, in this clearing, staring up at the stars, shoulders brushing as they talked. “You stole my answer.” She said, teasing. 

“Mine too.” Raven said, and she bumped her shoulder against Bellamy’s playfully. 

They were quiet for a minute, and Clarke could hear the gentle rustle of skin on fabric, as Raven’s hand idly explored Bellamy’s clothed chest. Camp Ark had strict rules against romantic contact between counsellors, and so they were trying to be good for the last few hours before the campers went home the next day, particularly now that they were back under the watchful eyes of camp administration. What was a few more hours when they had already spent weeks _not_ touching each other? 

Anyway, it felt like enough right now, just knowing that their feelings were reciprocated. That was the important part, and everything else could wait.

 _Thankfully, only for a few more hours, though_ , Clarke thought with a wry grin. 

A thought suddenly popped into her head. “Wait, Bell? Where the heck do you live?” She had spent so much time worrying about how she and Bellamy and Raven fit together, that the practical parts had somehow completely slipped her mind. “I mean, Raven and I obviously go to the same college, but you—“

“The same.” He said, quickly. “I’m in my last year at the same college. I live about a twenty minute walk away from your dorm. Facebook stalking, remember?” He added wryly, at Clarke’s surprised look. 

Clarke grinned. “So, what do we do once we’re back in the real world? I mean, do we go on dates? All three of us? What is the protocol for being in a relationship with more than one person at once?”

“We’ll do…” Bellamy paused, trying to find the right words. “Whatever the hell we want. We’ll figure it out.”

His hand came up to stroke the nape of Clarke’s neck, and Clarke suddenly had no doubts that he was right.

* * *

Camp Ark had a farewell breakfast, and then all of the campers were sent back to their cabins to pack their things to go home. It was particularly bittersweet for their fifteen year olds — some of whom had been coming to the camp for years — who would not be coming back next year, and there were many tears shed as the kids said goodbye to their friends. 

Clarke even found herself tearing up when kid after kid came by to give her a hug. She couldn’t believe that she had once worried that the campers didn’t like her, that she wasn’t making any impact in their lives. 

One by one, the teenagers departed as their parents and guardians came for them, until eventually it was just Clarke and Raven left sitting on the front steps to their cabin. 

“I’m going to miss those loud little shits.” Raven said, gruff, and then Clarke could have sworn that she saw Raven wiping away a tear from her eye. 

There was paperwork to be filled out, cabins to be cleaned, and supplies to be sorted through. However, as the counsellors sat eating dinner at one of the long tables in the mess hall, Kane appeared with a couple cases of beer.

“I will vehemently deny that this ever happened if any of you ever mention it outside this group, but… You did a good job, kids. Now go enjoy yourselves, but don’t do anything stupid, and don’t ever tell me what trouble you get up to.” His stern voice did not break as he spoke, but his eyes twinkled with a fond amusement. 

Clarke was most of the way through her first beer, and starting to feel a pleasant warmth spreading through her body, when the group of counsellors decided to wander over to the swimming area. 

She kicked her shoes off as she approached the dock, and then sat down at the end, letting her feet dip into the warm lake water. She idly drew circles on the surface with her toes, listening to the distant sound of crickets chirping in the trees, and the low murmur of laughter of her fellow counsellors. She wasn’t surprised when Raven came to join her; she sat down next to Clarke, dropping her head down on to Clarke’s shoulder.

“Bellamy showed me the drawing that you did.” She started, uncertain. “Of Bell and I sitting right here.” When Clarke nodded, she continued. “You weren’t jealous at all, watching the two of us together?”

She thought about it. “Maybe at first? But I think I figured it out pretty quickly. That I just liked seeing the two of you happy together. And that it didn’t have any bearing on how I felt about either of you.”

Raven was nodding. “I get it. I thought that I should have been jealous, especially after everything that happened with Finn. But I _like_ watching you and Bellamy together, and I don’t even really understand why it’s different.”

“We’re still figuring things out. But I think the fact that we all had this experience together — of growing close with _each other_ at once — makes it just feel different.”

Raven’s eyes darkened. “What about sex? What do you think that is going to be like?”

Clarke flushed, and she took a gulp from her beer bottle to try to hide her reaction. “Do you want to find out?”

“Fuck, yeah. I’ve never done any of this… I’ve never been with a girl, or with more than one person but…. I trust you. And I want to try _everything_.” Clarke couldn’t help laughing at the eager expression on Raven’s face. 

“C’mon, let’s go find Bell.” Clarke suggested, and she pulled Raven up by the hand, suddenly restless. Her face was still flushed, and Clarke felt like her skin was tingling where Raven’s hand touched her own. _Shit._ Bellamy was so attentive, and Raven was practically a force of nature. Clarke could only imagine what sex with the two of them would be like. _And fuck if she didn’t want to find out as soon as possible…_

It turned out that Bellamy was easy to find — he was standing on the beach, engaged in what looked to be an awkward conversation with Octavia and… Lincoln?

_What the hell?_

Octavia looked a little frantic as she gestured Clarke and Raven over. “Hey! Come over here! You’ve met Lincoln… my boyfriend.”

Clarke could feel her jaw drop and Raven didn’t seem to be doing much better. 

Bellamy was gritting his teeth. “Octavia was just telling me about how she has been sneaking out of the camp at night and meeting him half way between here and The Woods.” He said, grim. “Apparently she and Lincoln have been meeting secretly for weeks.”

It suddenly all made sense to Clarke. Octavia’s sudden distraction (Clarke had really thought that Octavia had given up on the prank war too quickly, to be honest) and Lincoln’s uncomfortableness around Bellamy when they met during the canoe trip. Octavia was staring down Bellamy defiantly, her hand on her hip and her eyes flashing with anger. 

“It’s none of your business, Bell. I’m eighteen, and there aren’t any rules about dating counsellors from _other_ camps. Anyway, he’s a student at the college where I’ll be in a couple weeks, so what are you going to do? Forbid me from seeing him when I’m living three hours away?” 

Bellamy practically growled. “Watch it or you won’t be going anywhere—“

Clarke grabbed Bellamy’s arm, before he said something that he was truly going to regret. His protective streak was one of the things that she admired about him, but she had first-hand experience in how it could make him lose his head… especially where Octavia was concerned. “Whoa there, tiger. Let’s slow it down. I’m sure Octavia can admit that sneaking out of the camp was probably not the best choice.” Clarke’s eyes flickered over to Octavia and she tried to project her best _just keep your mouth closed if you know what’s good for you_ look. Octavia was clearly not happy, but she didn’t say anything. “But Lincoln is a good guy and it will be good for Octavia to know someone when she starts college in a few weeks.”

Bellamy glared. “I still don’t think she should be dating someone who is my age.”

Clarke cut him off neatly. “Raven and I aren’t much older than Octavia, and we’re dating someone your age.” She pointed out. “C’mon, let’s go enjoy our last night at camp. Good to see you again, Lincoln. Have a good night.” She smiled at Octavia placatingly. 

Octavia was peering at Clarke with a profoundly grateful look (tinged with curiosity, but that was for the siblings to discuss - Clarke was willing to mediate arguments, but she was definitely steering clear of any sex or dating discussion), and Bellamy just mouthed “we’ll talk later” as he followed Raven away from the beach. Clarke had to choke back her sigh of relief.

“I still don’t like the idea of her sneaking around…” Bellamy was muttering to Raven, as they started down the path that led back towards the cabins. The tall trees blocked out the moonlight, and Clarke blinked as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. 

Raven suddenly stopped, and she spun around to face Bellamy. “Shut up, Bell.” She said, gently. And then she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck, pulling his face down to meet her lips. Even in the darkness, Clarke could see Bellamy’s surprise; it took him a second to respond, but when he did… it was like a fucking earthquake. Both hands came up to grab Raven’s hips, and he pulled her flush against him, as his mouth devoured hers. Clarke sighed, a breathy relieved sound, almost as if it were her that was being kissed. She isn’t, but it still just feels _right_.

When they finally pull away, Raven is panting, but she doesn’t even stop to catch her breath before she steps away from Bellamy and in to Clarke, her arms coming to rest on Clarke’s waist as she leans forward. She rests her forehead against Clarke’s, and Clarke can feel the gentle pants of her quickened breath against her mouth. “I’ve been waiting fucking forever to do this.” Raven whispers, and Clarke can see her tongue snake out to lick her lips out of the corner of her eye.

Finally ( _finally!_ ), Raven leans forward the last few millimetres. The kiss is soft and slow, almost lazy. After so many weeks of _wanting_ , Clarke would have expected to be frantic, fierce, but instead it is simply… warm and familiar, like their relationship has always been. 

Clarke let her tongue taste Raven’s lips, and then the other woman was opening for her, even as she brought her hand up to Clarke’s jaw to tip her head back and deepen the kiss. Raven tastes like campfire and marshmallows and sunshine, and when Clarke finally forces herself to pull away, she lets out a breathy little sigh that makes Clarke want more.

_”Fuck…”_ Raven breathed, her voice low and raspy, “Why haven’t we been doing that all summer?" 

Clarke is tilting her head, leaning in to capture Raven’s mouth again, when she is stopped by Bellamy’s voice. “I really hate to interrupt, but we could probably choose a better place for this than the middle of the public path that everyone else is going to have to use to get from the beach to the cabins. I mean, the darkness hides a lot, but I really doubt that anyone is going miss _that_.” Bellamy said, teasing. 

They wandered down the path for another few minutes, Raven clutching tightly on to Clarke’s hand as they picked their way through the darkness. The buzz from the beer had all but left Clarke’s system at this point, but she still felt flushed and not entirely in control of her own actions. Her spine was tingling, and it was thrilling in a way that Clarke wasn’t sure she had ever experienced. She wanted to do _something_ , feel _something_.

Eventually, they found themselves at the covered storage area where the canoes were kept, and Raven muttered _perfect_ under her breath. She continued past the canoes, and on to the small dock that they used for launching the canoes into the lake. The canoe area had been built on a small sheltered bay, coincidentally hidden from view from the swimming area, and anyone who happened to stumble on to them would only do so if they were looking for a secluded place of their own. 

Bellamy had settled down on to the wooden dock, his head tilted up to look at the stars, and before Clarke even knew what she was doing, she was climbing on to his lap, swinging one leg over to straddle him and bringing her arms up to wrap them around his neck. His pupils were wide (whether from the darkness or arousal, Clarke had no idea) but his deep brown eyes sparkled in the starlight. The edges of his lips turned up into a smile just before Clarke captured them with her own. 

Kissing Bellamy was different from kissing Raven. Where Raven was all push and pull, give and take, Bellamy was content to let Clarke take the lead. Clarke’s hands were frantic, but she finally settled on fisting in the front of Bellamy’s shirt, clutching him close to her as she devoured his mouth. If Raven tasted like sunlight, then Bellamy was darkness, and Clarke felt drunk on him. 

By the time she finally pulled away to catch her breath, she had removed his shirt, and Bellamy was palming one of Clarke’s breasts through her tank top. His dick was hard between them, and Clarke couldn’t help giving an experimental roll of her hips, making them both moan.

 _”Shit, Clarke…_ He groaned, and Clarke smiled widely.

“You guys are fun to watch, but I’m totally calling roommate dibs on her.” Raven said, cocky. “Plus, I’m the only one here who has never had sex with a girl before, and I think that gives me priority.”

Clarke giggled, even as Bellamy let out another low moan. “You two are going to kill me. This is how I’m going to die.” He said, his voice low and raspy.

“Says the only one of us who has actually had a threesome before.” Raven said.

“That was… completely different. Nothing at all like this.” Bellamy let his forehead come to rest against Clarke’s shoulder. It felt _important_ , somehow. 

Raven was kneeling next to them, and she stripped off her own tank top decisively. “Roommate dibs.” She said again, and then her mouth was back on Clarke’s.

Clarke should not have been surprised that Raven went into sex the same way that she approached anything else new — whole-heartedly and with enthusiasm. Within minutes, Clarke found herself lying flat on her back on the dock, stripped down to just her panties. Raven’s mouth was laying hot kisses along her collarbone, and Clarke squirmed, desperate for _more_. When Raven finally reached her breasts, she swirled her tongue around the nipple, before sucking it into her mouth, her cheeks hollowing with the effort. A desperate needy sound welled up in Clarke’s throat, and she didn’t bother choking it back down. 

When Raven pulled away, her expression was smug. “I wanna go down on you.” She said suddenly. “I like making you look like that.” She added, almost shyly. 

Clarke chuckled, but her voice was breathy and the words came out less casual than Clarke would have liked. “I’ve been thinking about how much I want to put my head between your legs for weeks.”

“Me too. You’ll help me out?” Raven asked, with just a touch of nervousness. “You too.” She added, looking at Bellamy.

“Oh, fuck yes.” 

Raven’s breath was warm against Clarke’s pelvic bone, as she slipped Clarke’s panties over her hips. She hesitated just a second, before suddenly dipping her head low to lick a stripe through Clarke’s damp folds. “God Clarke, you taste so fucking good.” She murmured, her lips brushing over Clarke’s skin as she spoke. 

Raven continued to experiment, trying out different movements to see Clarke’s reaction. One moment, her mouth was closed over Clarke’s clit, her cheeks hollowed as she sucked, and then a second later, she was tentatively teasing Clarke’s entrance with the flat of her tongue, humming with pleasure as she lapped at the wetness. Clarke’s head was swimming and her breath was coming in choked pants as she desperately tried to keep up. When Raven flicked the tip of her tongue against Clarke’s clit, Clarke’s hips were suddenly bowing off of the dock and she heard her own voice begging, “please Raven, just like that, don’t stop.”

She doesn’t stop. And Clarke’s thighs started to tremble, her hands tangling in Raven’s hair, and _yes oh god finally_. She came with a low moan of Raven’s name. 

Her muscles were still clenching, still wracked by tiny aftershocks, when she felt fingers against her opening, spreading her wetness before slipping inside. “Just watch this.” Bellamy said, his voice equal parts arousal and amusement. His fingers were rubbing against her sensitive inside wall, and Clarke’s muscles clamped down as he found _just the right place_. 

Clarke keened, her voice harsh and frantic, and he stroked faster inside of her. She hadn’t even fully come down from her first orgasm, but she can feel another one building steadily, and when Bellamy added a third finger, she was suddenly _right there_.

“Suck on her clit.” Bellamy said quietly, and Clarke was still trying to wrap her head around what he was telling her, when Raven’s mouth was suddenly on her and _oh_.

Clarke was just starting to recover from her second orgasm, when she heard Raven’s voice, just a little awed. “Fuck, that was really hot.”

“I know, right? Girls are so lucky.” Bellamy said, wistful. 

The voices are suddenly quiet, and when Clarke finally opens her eyes, she sees that the two of them are making out on the dock next to her; Raven is on top of Bellamy, her hips grinding down frantically, her hands _everywhere_. “What do you want?” Bellamy manages to choke out between kisses. 

“Inside me. Now.”

Bellamy gasped and his hips thrusted up to meet Raven’s enthusiastic grinding. “Shit. Condom?”

“Shit.” Raven agreed, not ceasing the movements of her hips in the slightest.

“If you keep doing this, I’m going to come just like this.” Bellamy warns, and Clarke can’t take her eyes off of the two of them as they continue to move against each other. 

“Works for me.” Raven gasped. “Let’s take your pants off, though.”

Raven and Bellamy are just as captivating as Clarke had always imagined, and she suddenly remembers the two of them sitting on the dock, Raven’s head thrown back in laughter as Bellamy watched her with a quiet intensity. Raven is a live wire, and when she comes in contact with Bellamy… it’s like a thunderstorm. Dark and powerful and electric. With the last of their clothes finally discarded, Raven is laying on top of Bellamy, every inch of their bodies pressed together as they muffle their moans against each other’s mouths as they kiss. Raven is grinding against Bellamy’s thigh, and Bellamy is rutting against her soft stomach, and when they come one right after the other, it’s with almost matching bitten off curses. 

Clarke’s fingertips traces over the muscles of Raven’s back, as she lays on top of Bellamy, her forehead pressed tightly against his shoulder. “I’m going to call that a success.” Raven finally says, sated and sleepy. 

Clarke has to agree. And when they all slip into the lake to clean off a few minutes later, and Raven’s fingers wander up to slide between Clarke’s thighs as they float in the dark water… well, this can only get better with experience, right?

* * *

Clarke wakes up the next morning to an elbow in her stomach, and three legs tangled between her own. She’s partially on top of Bellamy and mostly on top of Raven, but none of them are complaining, as they make the most of Clarke’s narrow bed in their cabin.

“We need to get used to it.” Raven muses sleepily. “Clarke and I are both living in the dorms again this year. Single beds.”

“I’ve been meaning to get a new mattress for my apartment.” Bellamy says, as he nuzzles in to Clarke’s neck. “No reason I can’t get a king.”

“Awesome.” Raven says, and then Clarke is drifting back to sleep, warmed by the sunlight filtering in through the open window.

* * *

She kisses Bellamy and then she kisses Raven, before climbing into the driver’s seat of her car. Even as she shuts the door, she can hear the low _oohs_ and _ahhhs_ (along with Octavia’s piercing whistle) from the other counsellors. Let’s face it, they were _not so subtle_ all summer. Even Clarke can admit that, now.

(“I’ve totally shipped it since the beginning.” Miller had told Bellamy, totally straight faced, as he packed up the last of his clothing into his battered duffle bag. The dude had really spent too much time with Monty and Jasper.)

“It’s just like you to proclaim yourself to be completely drama-free, and then finish off your summer camp counsellor experience with a boyfriend, who you almost beat up the first time you met him, and a girlfriend who is the ex-girlfriend of the cheating dick that you dated.” Wells said, wry. “Only Clarke Griffin. Seriously.”

“Shut up,” Clarke said, laughing. “I’m a walking disaster. It’s true. And yet, somehow it all still turned out just fine.”

She started the car, and then programmed the GPS in her phone with her mother’s address. She was heading _home_ for one week before moving back in to the dorms at the university, but somehow, the idea didn’t fill her with the same dread that it did only six weeks earlier. 

Maybe she was right. Maybe she was a walking disaster, but everything would still be just fine.


End file.
